Colorectal cancer is one of the most common cancers in people over the age of 50.
It usually starts from small growths in the colon or rectum, called polyps, but the exact causes are still not fully understood. The usual treatments include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, and targeted biological drugs.
Now, a new study from the University of Barcelona brings hope for better treatment by using a combination of two drugs—palbociclib and telaglenastat.
This early-stage research, published in the journal Oncogene, helps explain why some colorectal cancer cells can resist palbociclib, a drug already used to treat advanced breast cancer.
Palbociclib works by blocking certain proteins, CDK4 and CDK6, that cancer cells need to grow and divide. While this drug has shown promise, some cancer cells adapt and find ways to survive.
The team of researchers, led by Professor Marta Cascante and Dr. Timothy M. Thomson, studied how colorectal cancer cells change their metabolism when exposed to palbociclib.
They found that even after the drug is applied, some cancer cells survive by changing how they use nutrients—especially glutamine, an important amino acid. These cells also increase their mitochondrial activity, which gives them more energy to keep growing.
To fight this resistance, the team added another drug, telaglenastat, which blocks glutaminase—an enzyme that helps cancer cells use glutamine. By combining palbociclib and telaglenastat, they were able to prevent the cancer cells from adapting.
The combined treatment had a much stronger effect on stopping tumor growth than either drug alone. This effect was seen not only in lab tests but also in animal studies.
Professor Cascante explained that cancer cells that resist palbociclib show increased activity in glutamine metabolism.
Her team had already identified glutaminase as a target in previous research, but until now, they didn’t know if combining glutaminase inhibitors with CDK4/6 inhibitors would work well. This study shows that it does.
The researchers found that each drug triggers different changes in how cancer cells process energy. But when used together, their effects complement each other and block the cancer cells’ ability to recover. This “metabolic double hit” makes the combination especially powerful.
The study offers strong evidence that this two-drug approach could help patients who don’t respond well to current treatments. The results could lead to new clinical trials to test the combination in people.
The researchers also note that more studies are needed to confirm the safety and long-term effects of this treatment, especially in different types of patients.
Overall, this research shows the power of combining two targeted therapies to stop cancer from adapting and growing. It brings hope for better treatment options for one of the world’s most common and deadly cancers.
If you care about cancer, please read studies about common drugs for inflammation may help kill cancer, and statin drugs can starve cancer cells to death.
For more information about cancer, please see recent studies about these two things are key to surviving cancer and results showing common Indian fruit may slow down cancer growth.
The study is published in Oncogene.
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