Symposium Showcases Promising Research Aimed at Reducing Cancer Therapy Side Effects

By Marty Trieschmann

Ask any patient treated with chemotherapy, and the answer may be the treatment. Common side effects of chemotherapy include pain, fatigue, hair loss, mouth sores, bowel issues as well as nerve, muscle, cell and organ damage.

And that’s just chemotherapy. Conventional X-ray radiation, a treatment needed by half of all cancer patients, can cause scarring of the lungs and other injuries to any organ in the radiation field.

“Cancer treatments are much better than they used to be, and patients are living longer,” said Marjan Boerma, Ph.D., director of the Center for Studies of Host Response to Cancer Therapy at UAMS. “But patients and survivors can still experience physical suffering, both during and sometimes years after treatment.”

Symposium Showcases Promising Research Aimed at Reducing Cancer Therapy Side Effects

UAMS cancer researcher, Amanda Stolarz, Ph.D., discusses her lymphedema study with colleagues at the UAMS Showcase of Medical Discoveries

UAMS and Mayo Clinic Researchers Discover Key to Unlocking Molecular Cancer Therapies

By Marty Trieschmann

Researchers at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute and the Mayo Clinic have discovered a way to supercharge molecular cancer treatments to destroy more cancer-causing proteins in cells.

The research findings of UAMS’ Hong-yu Li, Ph.D., the Helen Adams and Arkansas Research Alliance Endowed Chair in Drug Discovery and professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology in the UAMS College of Pharmacy, and Haojie Huang, Ph.D., the Gordon H. and Violet Partels professor of Cellular Biology at the Mayo Clinic, are featured in the August issue of Advanced Science.

Li and Huang’s research gives drug makers a new road map to enhance the molecular cancer treatment therapy by PROTAC technology, a rapidly evolving treatment that is in clinical trials. PROTACs (Proteolysis Targeting Chimeras) are genetically engineered molecular compounds that bridge cancer-causing proteins with the molecules that seek to destroy them.

https://news.uams.edu/2021/10/05/uams-and-mayo-clinic-researchers-discover-key-to-unlocking-molecular-cancer-therapies/

The research findings of UAMS’ Hong-yu Li, Ph.D., (center) Helen Adams and Arkansas Research Alliance Endowed Chair in Drug Discovery and UAMS College of Pharmacy professor and the Mayo Clinic's Haojie Huang, Ph.D., provide a roadmap for drug makers to enhance a key molecular cancer treatment.

UAMS Announces First Phase 1 Cancer Clinical Trial

By DANIEL BREEN

Researchers at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences are studying ways to help protect the heart health of cancer patients from chemotherapy side effects. Dr. Hui-Ming Chang is leading the study, which will be the first Phase 1 cancer clinical trial done at UAMS.

The study aims to limit the heart damage caused by a commonly used chemotherapy drug known as doxorubicin. Chang says the negative effects of the drug sometimes aren’t felt until well after cancer treatment has ended.

Chang’s study involves another drug called dexrazoxane which has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to help limit heart damage, but can limit the efficacy of chemotherapy. She says that’s caused dexrazoxane to only be commonly used with very high doses of chemotherapy drugs.

https://www.ualrpublicradio.org/post/uams-announces-first-phase-1-cancer-clinical-trial

Dr. Hui-Ming Chang is leading the study which aims to limit the heart damage caused by a commonly used chemotherapy.

CREDIT UAMS.EDU