Most deaths from cancer are caused not by the original tumor, but by the physiologic toll of tumors that have spread, or metastasized, to other parts of the body.
But a new study, conducted largely in mouse models of cancer, suggests that an experimental drug may offer a way to address this critical problem. In the study, the drug showed that it can do what other therapies have been unable to accomplish: selectively attack metastatic tumors.
In mice with pancreatic cancer that had spread to other organs, treatment with the drug—called metarrestin—shrank metastatic tumors and greatly extended how long the mice lived. The drug appeared to be generally safe, with no evidence that it harmed the organs where metastatic tumors had formed or the mice in any way that the researchers could measure.
Source: NCI
