Breakthrough on cancers with poor prognosis

A new treatment for cancers of poor prognosis, which has been used to successfully cure aggressive advanced cancers in mice, will shortly be offered to Cork clinical trial patients.

The potential breakthrough treatment involves a combination of the next-generation immunotherapy drugs which boost the immune system and electroporation therapy — where short bursts of high-intensity electrical pulses are delivered to the tumour to open pores in cells for more efficient entry of drugs.

Declan Soden, who has researched the impact of cancer on the immune system for years at the Cork Cancer Research Centre (CCRC), said they had shown that delivering a short burst of electricity to the tumour sparks “a robust immune engagement into the cancer”.