Cancer drugs being developed at Imperial could offer a new way to treat the disease, say researchers.

Imperial scientists presented their results at the latest Imperial College Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC) seminar series event.

Professor Ed Tate, Professor of Chemical Biology at Imperial College London and Professor Charles Coombes, Consultant Medical Oncologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, explained the significance of their findings to staff and academics at Charing Cross Hospital.

Professor Tate discussed his research on developing new drugs to treat cancer and inflammatory conditions, following the discovery of a disease-causing enzyme known as N-myristoyltransferase (NMT).

NMT makes irreversible changes to proteins and is known to be involved in a range of diseases including cancer, epilepsy, and Alzheimer’s disease. Professor Tate and his team identified a molecule that blocks NMT’s activity, and have identified specific protein substrates where this molecule has a potent impact, suggesting a potential new way to treat cancer.

Professor Tate and his team are working with collaborators at the Francis Crick Institution to see if their findings could be used to find new treatments for diseases, such as metastatic cancers and Alzheimer’s.

Professor Coombes discussed his research on developing new approaches for treating breast cancers that have become resistant to traditional hormone therapies.

Seventy percent of breast cancer patients have estrogen receptor positive cancer, and most patients respond well to anti-estrogen therapies, such as Tamoxifen, which lowers the levels of estrogen or progesterone in the body, or block their effects. However, 50% of patients’ tumors return and evolve to become resistant to traditional treatments; as a result some patients will experience a fatal outcome. Professor Coombes explained how he has developed a new drug that targets these cancer cells and make them respond to hormone therapies, potentially leading to a new treatment for this type of cancer. The team are now carrying out a clinical trial on patients at Charing Cross Hospital to measure the effectiveness of the drug.

The seminar was the second of a new series designed to showcase the work of the AHSC, a partnership between Imperial College London and three NHS Trusts. It aims to translate world-leading discovery science into new diagnostics, devices, and therapies as quickly as possible, for the benefit of patients and populations worldwide.