Infant leukaemia drugs could tackle neuroblastoma, research shows

A new class of drugs that were developed to tackle infant leukaemia could be used to treat the childhood cancer neuroblastoma, a study has found.

The Press Association has reported that US researchers found the BET bromodomain inhibitors could be used to treat people who suffer from neuroblastoma that is caused by a specific genetic defect.

These BET inhibitors are an example of a new range of experimental treatments entitled epigenetic drugs, which function by mimicking chemical tags on the structures surrounding DNA.

Study author Professor Kimberly Stegmaier, from Dana-Farber/Children's Hospital Cancer Center, noted that a number of researchers were hoping for the BET bromodomain inhibitors to offer new ways of treating certain cancers.

However, Ms Stegmaier admitted that the main issue has been finding the patients who are most likely to respond to the drugs, with more than 600 types of cancer cells being looked at as part of the study.

The research was published in the journal Cancer Discovery, finding that neuroblastoma cells with extra copies of the MYCN gene were sensitive to the drugs.

The prep work found that the drug reduced MYCN protein levels in lab-grown neuroblastoma cells, slowing down their growth and leading to cell death.

As well as this, the drug shrank tumours and extended the survival of mice.

Dr Kat Arney, science information manager at Cancer Research UK, commented on the discovery, noting that more effective treatments are required for children with neuroblastoma.

"Cancer Research UK scientists have already shown that BET inhibitors might be effective against some types of leukaemia, and these results add another potential use of these promising drugs.

"But they are very new and have so far only been tested in the lab, so more work needs to be done to show whether they might help patients in the future," she continued.