Hope of fresh treatment for seven cancers after single antibody is found to shrink tumours from all of them

A drug that helps the immune system to break down cancerous tumours has been developed.

It has worked on breast, bowel, prostate, ovarian, brain, bladder and liver cancers, while previous studies show it can also be used to fight some blood cancers.

If given early, the drug could even be a cure, researchers say.
The antibody has so far been tested only on mice, but researchers hope to give it to people within two years.

Its effectiveness centres on a protein called CD47, which is found on the surface of cancer cells in high quantities. The protein prevents them from being engulfed and eaten by immune cells called macrophages.

The drug masks the so-called ‘don’t-eat-me signal’, allowing the immune system to attack the cancer – a goal of many researchers for decades. Read More