It’s hard to say without further experimentation but drosophila melanogaster models head and neck cancers therefore testing the compound on tumors in less life-threatening areas of the body may prove useful especially if combined with radiation or surgery.
Is it common to see and increase in efficacy of different cancer drugs in conjunction with radiation therapy or is radiation therapy just used to prevent large doses of the drug?
@Griffin I’d say a bit of both. Combination therapy allows for controlled doses of both forms of therapy and increases the effectiveness of the drug (most of the time). It didn’t in our case but that was our desired result and most drugs used to treat cancer will work synergistically with radiation, producing more effective results in killing tumor cells.
Immunotherapy would be a suitable method as it would increase the immune system of the patient and possibly allow for a higher dose of radiation or the drug to be administered.
Is it common to see an increase in efficacy of cancer drugs when used in conjunction with radiation therapy? Or is radiation therapy just used as a way of preventing large doses of each drug?
Thanks! 🙂 The reason for this would most likely be that radiation is a really effective way to cause DNA damage and kill tumor cells. We irradiated the larvae at 2500 rad which is extremely high and so it resulted in 50% survival in the flies. Our drug produced a higher % survival because it is likely not an effective chemotherapy or fruit flies are not a suitable model for our drug. Future testing on different tumor models or different combinations of therapies could produce different results.
What other types of cancer do you think your compound could be effective on?
It’s hard to say without further experimentation but drosophila melanogaster models head and neck cancers therefore testing the compound on tumors in less life-threatening areas of the body may prove useful especially if combined with radiation or surgery.
Based on what you know bout your compound, which other form of cancer treatment do you think would increase your compound’s efficacy?
Is it common to see and increase in efficacy of different cancer drugs in conjunction with radiation therapy or is radiation therapy just used to prevent large doses of the drug?
@Griffin I’d say a bit of both. Combination therapy allows for controlled doses of both forms of therapy and increases the effectiveness of the drug (most of the time). It didn’t in our case but that was our desired result and most drugs used to treat cancer will work synergistically with radiation, producing more effective results in killing tumor cells.
Immunotherapy would be a suitable method as it would increase the immune system of the patient and possibly allow for a higher dose of radiation or the drug to be administered.
Is it common to see an increase in efficacy of cancer drugs when used in conjunction with radiation therapy? Or is radiation therapy just used as a way of preventing large doses of each drug?
Great presentation! Do you have a possible explanation as to why your drug actually helped more flies survive compared to just radiaiton?
Thanks! 🙂 The reason for this would most likely be that radiation is a really effective way to cause DNA damage and kill tumor cells. We irradiated the larvae at 2500 rad which is extremely high and so it resulted in 50% survival in the flies. Our drug produced a higher % survival because it is likely not an effective chemotherapy or fruit flies are not a suitable model for our drug. Future testing on different tumor models or different combinations of therapies could produce different results.
How did you isolate Astragalus as a potential chemotherapy drug? Was this through research or previous knowledge by your group?
Great presentation! Why would mice or human cancer cell lines prove more effective when experimented on with the drug?