Sniping the king of cancer, an innovative therapy, takes a different path

If the furthest distance in the world is "I'm by your side and you don't know I love you", then the most regrettable thing in the history of Nobel prize may be: the prize came, but you left three days ago! As we all know, Nobel prizes are not usually awarded to scientists who have passed away, but Ralph Steinman, winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine Steinman) broke the rule - on September 30, 2011, just three days before receiving the call for the award, he died of pancreatic cancer He walked so quietly that few people around him knew that a generation of immunologists had passed away, including the Nobel Prize Committee Pancreatic cancer is known as the "king of cancer" No matter you are a celebrity or ordinary people, once you fall into its hands, the tragic outcome seems to be doomed Although the continuous progress of medical technology has made many cancers lose their former prestige, but pancreatic cancer is like a bloodthirsty ghost hidden in the dark It's unpredictable but fierce and terrifying How to strive for more vitality from pancreatic cancer? Halozyme, a San Diego based clinical oncology company, has proposed an innovative solution to change the tumor microenvironment against pancreatic cancer In today's article, the content team of Wuxi apptec invited Dr Alison armour, senior vice president of R & D of halozyme company, to unveil the mystery of this innovative therapy for us Dr Alison armour, senior vice president of R & D, halozyme Pancreas, a seemingly "humble" organ, is small in size and deep in hiding The diseases related to it have been ignored for thousands of years The onset of pancreatic cancer is occult, the early symptoms are not typical, but the progress is rapid "Early screening for pancreatic cancer is very challenging and reliable biomarkers have not been developed Because the pancreas is located in the deep abdomen, it is difficult to find out the pancreatic cancer by routine clinical examination At the same time, the symptoms of pancreatic cancer are often non-specific, such as nausea, vomiting, weight loss or pain, which is easy to be misdiagnosed " Said Dr armour For most patients, when they are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, they often have lost the chance of radical surgery, and the cancer cells have also been transferred to other parts of the body; the traditional intervention, chemotherapy, targeted treatment and other treatment methods have very limited effect at this time According to some data, only 20% of pancreatic cancer patients can live for one year after diagnosis, and less than 5% can live for five years It is worrying that the incidence rate of pancreatic cancer worldwide is increasing year by year Taking the United States as an example, a study on Cancer Research predicts that pancreatic cancer will rise to second place in the country's cancer mortality ranking in 2030, next only to lung cancer The opponent is so fierce, in order to strive for the greatest hope for survival, mankind launched a round of shocks In this life and death struggle with pancreatic cancer, halozyme developed his own "secret weapon" - pegph20 In addition to gemcitabine and a few other drugs, there is little progress in the development of drugs for pancreatic cancer "We have to be brave enough to try," Dr armour said "Patients with pancreatic cancer often go into advanced stage when they are ill, so we need to find effective and fast acting drugs." Huge unmet medical needs have become the driving force for halozyme to explore After in-depth research, halozyme finally focused on a new field tumor microenvironment (TME) Just like everyone lives in a specific environment (including natural environment and social environment), every tumor cell also lives in its own specific microenvironment Specifically, the tumor microenvironment includes malignant cells and many non malignant cells (such as fibroblasts and immune cells), blood vessels, and extracellular matrix components such as collagen and hyaluronic acid (HA) It is worth noting that cancer cells will use various means to "optimize" this microenvironment, promote the growth of malignant cells and produce immunosuppressive As far as the treatment of pancreatic cancer is concerned, there is a big headache in the medical field: there is often a high pressure in the microenvironment of pancreatic cancer, which brings many problems such as vascular compression, limited blood flow, and increased hypoxia area As a result, therapeutic interventions are blocked from entering the tumor "Pancreatic cancer is surrounded by very dense fibrous tissue, only about 10% of which are tumor cells, and these cells are surrounded by hyaluronic acid Hyaluronic acid is a kind of glycosaminoglycan, which gathers on the surface of tumor cells and its surrounding space In the progression of immune cells to tumor, hyaluronic acid forms a barrier, which compresses blood vessels and hinders chemotherapy " Said Dr armour ▲ HA molecules around tumor (photo source: halozyme website) As one of the main candidate drugs developed by halozyme, pegph20 targets hyaluronic acid, which is based on a recombinant human hyaluronidase, rhhuph20 Dr armour said the innovative treatment can degrade hyaluronic acid accumulated around pancreatic tumors, reduce tumor pressure, and make blood vessels easier to transport oxygen, chemotherapy drugs and immune cells in tumor areas With the help of pegph20, the ability of chemotherapy or immunotherapy agents to penetrate pancreatic tumors has been greatly improved, and its malignant growth momentum has also been curbed From the clinical practice, pegph20 performance is not disappointing In a phase 2 multicenter, randomized clinical study called halo 202, pegph20 combined with nabuterol and gemcitabine showed a statistically significant improvement in progression free survival (PFS) compared with patients receiving standard chemotherapy (nabuterol and gemcitabine) for high-level hyaluronic acid (HA high) pancreatic cancer In fact, pegph20 is not only aimed at pancreatic cancer Dr armour said halozyme is also promoting research on other solid tumors to explore whether the ability of pegph20 to degrade and accumulate hyaluronic acid can improve the effectiveness of various anti-cancer therapies R & D pipeline of halozyme (photo source: halozyme official website) "Though it's hard to wash thousands of clothes, it's hard to blow all the sand before gold comes." In the fight against cancer, despite the difficulties, the pace of human progress has never stopped, and pegph20 has shown a bright future We are looking forward to halozyme's continuous breakthrough in the development of new cancer therapies, lighting the fire of life for millions of cancer patients reference material: [1] Halozyme Utilizing Unique Tumor Microenvironment Pathway to Fight Pancreatic Cancer October 8, 2019, from https://wxpress.wuxiapptec.com/halozyme-utilizing-unique-tumor-microenvironment-pathway-to-fight-pancreatic-cancer/ [2] Halozyme Announces Phase 2 Study In Advanced Pancreas Cancer Meets Key Endpoints Retrieved January 5, 2017, from https:// [3]Pancreatic Cancer Projected to Become Second Leading Cause of Cancer-related Death in the United States by 2030 Retrieved May 19, 2014, from https:// A kind of