Combining two medicines may help treat childhood brain cancer: Study

A team of Australian researchers has tested a new way of treating childhood brain cancer by combining two medicines in laboratory studies.

The study, published in the journal *Science Translational Medicine*, found that using the two treatments together may work better than using either on its own.

The team from the Children’s Cancer Institute and the University of New South Wales tested a combined therapy approach on a group of difficult-to-treat brain tumours — diffuse midline gliomas (DMG) — in the laboratory.

This group includes diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), a rare but fatal childhood brain cancer and a type of DMG. Children diagnosed with DIPG usually survive for about 12 months.

“We recognise that no single drug treatment is able to eradicate the most aggressive brain cancers on its own,” said Conjoint Associate Professor Maria Tsoli from UNSW.

She said this led the researchers to explore whether combining treatments could work better.

UNSW Conjoint Professor David Ziegler said one of the biggest challenges with these tumours is that thousands of genes are switched on at the same time, driving the cancer’s growth.

“It has proven extremely difficult to find a way to switch them all off,” he said.

The researchers said DMG cells grow out of control because of changes that disrupt normal gene activity.

The study discovered a promising combination of drugs that successfully shuts down the transcription process, effectively switching off thousands of genes at once, they explained.

The team focused on two important proteins involved in transcription — FACT and BET — which are found at high levels in cancer cells. Drugs that block these proteins already exist, but when used on their own, they only slow the cancer slightly.

However, when used together, the cancer cells died in laboratory experiments.

Experiments in mice showed that the treatment slowed tumour growth and helped the mice live longer.

The researchers also found that the treatment activated signals linked to the immune system, meaning the cancer cells may become easier for the body’s immune system to recognise and target.

Because of this, the researchers believe that adding an immune-based treatment, such as CAR T-cell therapy, could work even better in the future.

The researchers said both types of drugs are already being developed for use in patients and are currently in clinical trials.