Every month, I’ll be highlighting breast cancer research that is going on RIGHT NOW! Harvested from different websites, journals and podcasts, I’ll translate them into understandable English and share them with you. Today: ErSO trials show 95-100% elimination of breast cancer cells!
“A new approach to treating breast cancer kills 95-100% of cancer cells in mouse models of human estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancers and their metastases in bone, brain, liver and lungs. The newly developed drug, called ErSO, quickly shrinks even large tumors to undetectable levels.”
First of all, I need to put my hand over my heart and say, “All is well…” (from my daughter-in-law’s favorite movie, “Three Idiots” (watch it if you don’t mind subtitles, but it is funny, warm, and everything a Bollywood movie should be!) I was so excited, but I had to remind myself that the end is not nigh!
Why? Because right now ALL that they’re reporting is mouse trials, which is a long, long way away from you being able to go to your nearest Breast Cancer care center and demand the new drug! Most typically, the drug goes through three stages. First is preclinical research, when the drug is found and first tested in a test tube and in animals. Next, there are clinical studies when the drug is tested in people (many large cities have research institutes where you can sign on to be part of such a study). [I was involved with a family heart disease study called ARIC (Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities) as well as a study looking at the efficacy of mega doses of Vitamin D3 in preventing Diabetes…I was dismissed from the study when I developed a kidney stone…which, apparently, they expected would happen to some participants…]. The last stage is Post-clinical research, which takes place after the drug is approved and studies continue looking at long-term effects of the drug being studied.
ErSO researchers are still in the preclinical stage and likely will be for some time.
HOWEVER, the drug has an amazing performance, and the mice in the study didn’t develop any resistance to the drug, either. If it looked like some of the cancer escaped the first round of therapy and began to metastasize, a second round took care of the cancer cells as it had the first group of cells. “It is striking that ErSO caused the rapid destruction of most lung, bone and liver metastases and dramatic shrinkage of brain metastases, since tumors that have spread to other sites in the body are responsible for most breast cancer deaths.”
HOW does it work? First of all the technical explanation: “The activity of ErSO depends on a protein called the estrogen receptor, which is present in a high percentage of breast tumors. When ErSO binds to the estrogen receptor, it upregulates a cellular pathway that prepares cancer cells for rapid growth and protects them from stress. This pathway, called the anticipatory Unfolded Protein Response, or a-UPR, spurs the production of proteins that protect the cell from harm.”
Explaining estrogen receptors in a cells is best shown with a picture:
“A new approach to treating breast cancer kills 95-100% of cancer cells in mouse models of human estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancers and their metastases in bone, brain, liver and lungs. The newly developed drug, called ErSO, quickly shrinks even large tumors to undetectable levels.”
First of all, I need to put my hand over my heart and say, “All is well…” (from my daughter-in-law’s favorite movie, “Three Idiots” (watch it if you don’t mind subtitles, but it is funny, warm, and everything a Bollywood movie should be!) I was so excited, but I had to remind myself that the end is not nigh!
Why? Because right now ALL that they’re reporting is mouse trials, which is a long, long way away from you being able to go to your nearest Breast Cancer care center and demand the new drug! Most typically, the drug goes through three stages. First is preclinical research, when the drug is found and first tested in a test tube and in animals. Next, there are clinical studies when the drug is tested in people (many large cities have research institutes where you can sign on to be part of such a study). [I was involved with a family heart disease study called ARIC (Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities) as well as a study looking at the efficacy of mega doses of Vitamin D3 in preventing Diabetes…I was dismissed from the study when I developed a kidney stone…which, apparently, they expected would happen to some participants…]. The last stage is Post-clinical research, which takes place after the drug is approved and studies continue looking at long-term effects of the drug being studied.
ErSO researchers are still in the preclinical stage and likely will be for some time.
HOWEVER, the drug has an amazing performance, and the mice in the study didn’t develop any resistance to the drug, either. If it looked like some of the cancer escaped the first round of therapy and began to metastasize, a second round took care of the cancer cells as it had the first group of cells. “It is striking that ErSO caused the rapid destruction of most lung, bone and liver metastases and dramatic shrinkage of brain metastases, since tumors that have spread to other sites in the body are responsible for most breast cancer deaths.”
HOW does it work? First of all the technical explanation: “The activity of ErSO depends on a protein called the estrogen receptor, which is present in a high percentage of breast tumors. When ErSO binds to the estrogen receptor, it upregulates a cellular pathway that prepares cancer cells for rapid growth and protects them from stress. This pathway, called the anticipatory Unfolded Protein Response, or a-UPR, spurs the production of proteins that protect the cell from harm.”
Explaining estrogen receptors in a cells is best shown with a picture:
In a breast cancer cell, there are LOTS of these estrogen receptors. When the cells become cancerous, a “cellular pathway [opens up] that prepares cancer cells for rapid growth and protects them from stress – in other words, it spurs the production of proteins that protect the cell from harm.”
ErSO latches onto the estrogen receptor site and kicks it into overdrive, so instead of gently protecting the cancer cell from the body and any kinds of cancer drugs used, the cell starts to eat itself. It ONLY works on cells that have this estrogen receptor site…which is most cancer cells. It leaves the rest of the body’s cells alone – including hair cells…(many chemotherapy drugs kill hair cells, which is why hair loss during chemo is common…)
From a recent article in INTERESTING ENGINEERING, “Human clinical trials will go forward with a Bayer AG license of the new drug, with an eye toward testing ErSO's effectiveness against a broader spectrum of cancers that carry estrogen receptors.”
At any rate, this isn’t something we can use TODAY, but in the future? Who knows. Sounds like a cure to me!
Resources: www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/07/210722113058.htm, https://www.cancer.net/research-and-advocacy/introduction-cancer-research/how-are-cancer-drugs-discovered-and-developed, https://www.cancer.gov/sites/g/files/xnrzdm211/files/styles/cgov_article/public/cgov_image/media_image/2021-03/Functioning-ER_0.jpg?h=42b4009f&itok=RdBp3vn3, https://interestingengineering.com/kill-breast-cancer-cells
Image: https://inteng-storage.s3.amazonaws.com/img/iea/QjOd44kWOd/sizes/kill-breast-cancer-cells_md.jpg
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