Aggressive cancers are dangerous because they don’t just stay in one place. They often travel through the body by using blood vessels like highways, spreading to new organs and forming more tumors.
But a new study from the University of Mississippi offers hope. Researchers found that a drug called ifetroban might help stop cancer from spreading by making it easier for the immune system to find and destroy cancer cells in the blood. The study was published in Experimental Hematology & Oncology.
When cancer cells enter the bloodstream, they quickly connect with platelets—the tiny cells that help your blood clot. These platelets form a protective shield around the cancer cells, hiding them from the immune system. This makes it hard for the body’s white blood cells to attack the cancer.
But ifetroban, a drug originally developed to prevent blood clots, can block this connection. Without the platelets acting as bodyguards, the immune system can do its job and remove the cancer cells before they reach new parts of the body.
Dr. Thomas Werfel, one of the researchers, explained that treating cancer that stays in one area is usually possible. The real danger comes when cancer spreads, a process called metastasis. Stopping this spread could save many lives.
His team focused on triple-negative breast cancer, one of the most aggressive and hard-to-treat types. This cancer often shows high levels of a receptor called TPr, which helps platelets stick to cancer cells. So the team asked: what would happen if we blocked TPr?
Their tests on animal models showed impressive results. Ifetroban cut lung metastases by 67%, liver metastases by 60%, and reduced the number of cancer cells floating in the blood by over 50%. These numbers are important because they show the drug can help slow or stop the spread of cancer.
Right now, there are very few treatments specifically designed to block cancer from spreading. Most cancer drugs focus on shrinking or killing existing tumors.
Ifetroban doesn’t replace these drugs, but it could work alongside them. While other treatments are attacking the main tumor, ifetroban could help prevent the disease from popping up in new places.
Another exciting fact is that ifetroban has already been tested for safety in over 1,400 people. This means it may become available much faster than most new drugs, which often take over a decade to go through testing and approval.
Since it’s already in clinical trials for other health conditions, researchers hope the process will be much quicker if the drug proves effective in cancer patients too.
This discovery could lead to new ways of treating some of the deadliest cancers, including breast, lung, and pancreatic cancer.
By stopping cancer from spreading through the bloodstream, ifetroban might give patients a better chance at survival and improve the success of other treatments. It’s a promising step forward in the fight against cancer.
If you care about cancer, please read studies that a low-carb diet could increase overall cancer risk, and vitamin D supplements could strongly reduce cancer death.
For more information about health, please see recent studies about how drinking milk affects the risks of heart disease and cancer and results showing higher intake of dairy foods linked to higher prostate cancer risk.
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