Tata Memorial study identifies toxicity-reducing agent, holds out hope for cancer patients
Tata Memorial Hospital researchers find dying cancer cells release chromatin particles post-chemo, using resveratrol-copper combo to reduce toxicity in patients.
MUMBAI: A decade-long research study by Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH) doctors has found that dying cancer cells release cell-free chromatin particles after chemotherapy and radiotherapy that can turn healthy cells into cancerous ones. It also found that a pro-oxidant combination of resveratrol (found in the skin of grapes) and copper helped in destroying the chromatin and regulating toxicity in patients undergoing chemotherapy.
“We did a little experiment in which we took human breast cancer cells and implanted them in immunodeficient mice,” said Dr Indraneel Mittra, the onco-surgeon-turned-scientist who led the TMH doctors in the study. “Within six weeks, a small tumour was formed. We divided the mice into three categories according to the cancer treatment—chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery. We found that all the three treatments increased chromatin in the mouse brain.”
Mittra added that once the doctors had established that cancer treatments left behind chromatin particles, their focus was on reducing treatment-related toxicity in various cancers like stomach, brain, oral and blood cancer in human trials.
“We found that a combination of resveratrol and copper helped in destroying chromatin. We used the combination to be given orally in our studies and found that it prevented metastasis,” said Dr Mittra, who added that while this was the outcome of the experiment on mice, the team would now do human trials. Dr Mittra joined TMH in 1982 as the country’s first “surgeon scientist”.
The team of doctors simultaneously started studies on the efficacy of resveratrol-copper in reducing post-chemo toxicity. One of the three studies was done by Dr Navin Khattry, deputy director at TMC, who used it on 20 patients who underwent chemotherapy after bone marrow transplant.
“We divided 20 such patients into two groups—one which received this combination and the other which did not. We saw ulceration in the mouth as the most common side-effects in such patients after chemotherapy. We found that we could prevent or reduce this ulceration in the group that received the combination drug, “ said Dr Khattry. The combination was also used on gastric cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, and doctors said they found that side-effects like nausea, vomiting and hand-foot syndrome were either prevented or reduced.
The team also carried out another study involving head-and-neck cancer patients to find out if the aggressiveness of the cancer could be controlled. “Our study has found that we can minimise the aggressive biological behaviour of cancer,” said Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi, oral cancer surgeon and deputy director, TMC, who led the study. The team’s findings have been published in various peer-reviewed journals.
TMC has tied up with a nutraceutical company to commercially produce the “residue-removal agents”, also called chromatin-degrading agents. The nutraceutical should be ready for sale in June or July.
Dr Mittra emphasised the need for further large-scale studies but expressed optimism about the possibility of curing cancer rather than just treating it. “We now need to test it on humans to understand how best we can improve the outcome of our patients, and if possible, the outcome of the general population of India,” said Dr Rajendra Badwe, Professor Emeritus, TMC, who is also part of the studies on resveratrol and copper.