Antinerve growth factor could be used to enhance the treatment of oral cancer by reducing symptoms such as pain and rapid weight loss, according to a study in Molecular Cancer Therapeutics (September 2011, Vol. 10:9, pp.1667-1676).
Cancer-induced pain and cachexia are often studied and treated independently, although both symptoms are strongly linked with chronic inflammation and sustained production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, noted the study authors, from New York University and the University of California, San Francisco.
"Since nerve growth factor (NGF) plays a cardinal role in inflammation, and pain, and because it interacts with multiple pro-inflammatory cytokines, we hypothesized that NGF acts as a key endogenous molecule involved in the orchestration of cancer-related inflammation," they wrote. "NGF might be a molecule common to the mechanisms responsible for clinically distinctive cancer symptoms such as pain and cachexia, as well as cancer progression."
Using two validated mouse cancer models, the researchers found that NGF is highly elevated in human oral squamous cell carcinoma tumors and cell cultures. They also demonstrated that NGF blockade decreases tumor proliferation, nociception, and weight loss by orchestrating pro-inflammatory cytokines and leptin production.
"Together, these results identify NGF as a crucial common mechanistic link among proliferation, pain, and cachexia in oral cancer," the researchers wrote.
As a result, "anti-NGF could be an important mechanism-based therapy for oral cancer and its related symptoms," they concluded.
