Innovative Cat Drug Shows Promise for Transforming Human Cancer Treatment

Head and neck cancer, a pathology still little known

Head and neck cancer may not tell you much, and yet it is among the most widespread. Indeed, according to the Bristol Myers Squibb sitehead and neck cancer, which are up to three times more numerous in men than in women, is the most common 6ᵉ cancer in the world.

In this sense, a research team from the University of California in San Francisco (USA), has tested a new type of targeted therapy to treat cancer of the head and neck on cats, which are also affected. And the results obtained have a good omen for the fight against this disease.

A unique drug of a kind

American researchers have carried out trials on 20 cats with this cancer, by administering them a brand new medication, which blocks the activity of stat3, a molecule involved in the activation of certain genes and present in several types of cancers, including those of the head and neck.

The results obtained are promising, since more than a third of cats who received this treatment have seen their disease stabilized, with few side effects. Jak, a domestic cat who was part of the test, had lived more than 8 months after the diagnosis of head and neck cancer, with a clear improvement in his symptoms, while the specialists had indicated to his mistress that he had only 6 to 8 weeks left.

A treatment that could be effective on humans

This new medication is a major advance in the fight against cancers, as that “Shows that it is possible to target molecules behind the expression of the genes, called transcription factors, which are at the origin of the increase in cancer”said Dr. Daniel Johnson of the University of California in San Francisco and co-author of the study.

If for the moment it has only been tested among cats, this could in the future offer a possibility of fighting head and neck cancer, which causes each year between 330,000 and 530,000 deaths.

This cancer, which has approximately 15,000 new cases each year in France, manifests itself in symptoms such as a bump in the affected area, persistent sores of sore, a red or white task in the mouth, or a modification of the voice.

Source: Independent