2023-05-06 17:10:19
While modern medicine manages to control primary cancerous tumors quite well, the mystery persists around how to treat metastases. Thanks to the research of Mr. Côté and his team, the fog is gradually dissipating and we better understand the mechanism that allows certain cells of the cancerous tumor to escape into the system to develop secondary tumors in other areas of the body.
These discoveries earned Jean-François Côté the title of Great Scientist 2023 by the Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation. In an interview with The Canadian Press, the president and scientific director of the IRCM said he was really proud and above all really lucky to have been able to count on motivated and committed teams.
“It’s really up to them to win the prize,” he insists. I always feel a little uncomfortable receiving awards, but I’m glad that our work has been recognized and that the importance of fundamental discoveries is recognized.
Holder of a doctorate in biochemistry from McGill University, Jean-François Côté then pursued his quest for knowledge about cancer in the United States by spending four years at the Sanford-Burnham Institute for Medical Research located on the outskirts of San Diego. On his return to Montreal, he took advantage of a certain momentum in scientific research on breast cancer to join the movement and start his own work.
“Several key proteins have been identified to control (cellular) migration and invasion,” he says. Cellular invasion occurs when migrating tumor cells manage to degrade the environment around them to cross complex tissues.
His team focuses on the two most aggressive types of cancer, HER2 and triple negative. Great progress has been made, explains Mr. Côté, especially when they were able to demonstrate in animal models that once the proteins identified in the body are attacked, the formation of metastases is prevented.
Currently, if a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer, the original tumor can be treated. However, if cells have already migrated elsewhere in his body, they can go dormant for a very long period of up to 15 or 20 years.
“Those that manage to lodge in secondary organs do not recognize the environment in which they find themselves. They will fall asleep only to wake up when the conditions are conducive to forming a metastasis,” develops the expert who is also a professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Montreal.
At the moment, Jean-François Côté and his team are interested in the AXL protein. In patients with HER-2 positive breast cancer, those who express the most this protein are those who tend to develop metastases.
“It gives us a sort of biomarker to know that it is probably these patients who would benefit the most from a drug against AXL to prevent metastases”, summarizes the researcher, hoping one day that this biomarker will be part of the palette. analysis provided to doctors after a biopsy.
Moreover, this AXL protein would also have been observed in kidney or lung cancers and it would always be associated with the development of metastases. For the researcher, the next step will be to find a way to eliminate dormant cells.
Understand the waterfall
What the “Great Scientist 2023” aims to accomplish is to understand the entire metastatic cascade in breast cancer so that we can both block early events and prevent late events. Once this is accomplished, he believes that medicine will have enough tools to stop the development of metastases.
The doctor of biochemistry does not claim that we will cure breast cancer by creating a drug against the AXL protein. In his opinion, the first-line drugs will remain the same as are already prescribed. These make it possible to act against the oncogene at the origin of the disease.
“The idea is to come and combine standard therapy with the new metastatic therapy to try to fill the two levels, either by keeping the tumor under control while coming to attack it,” he suggests.
To get there, there is still a long way to go since the dormancy of tumor cells is a neglected aspect of cancer research, believes Jean-François Côté. However, it is these small cells hidden in secondary organs that represent a real threat to the patient’s survival.
When secondary tumors are controlled, cancer could well become a chronic disease with which a patient could live for many years.
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