MICA: Well-characterised monoclonal antibody-photosensitiser conjugates for the treatment of head and neck cancer

该项目涉及开发一种治疗头颈癌的新方法。头颈部癌症代表许多不同的疾病，包括口腔癌和食道癌和喉癌。最新数据显示，英国每年诊断出超过16，000例此类癌症。目前对头颈癌的治疗可能会导致生活质量的显着损失，通过丧失语言，饮食困难和毁容。我们在这里提出的治疗方法，光动力疗法（PDT），比手术或放射疗法温和得多，包括在肿瘤中局部施用染料。没有热量的可见光被用来激活癌症内部的染料，这会导致有毒形式的氧（单线态氧）的释放。单线态氧具有非常短的活性范围，如果它不与癌细胞成分反应，它会返回到正常的无毒形式的氧。如果肿瘤内产生足够的单线态氧，则可以摧毁癌症。初步结果表明，靶向头颈癌的单克隆抗体可以负载PDT染料以提供高剂量，并且这在模型系统中是有效的。我们计划，在这个项目中，积累足够的数据，开始这种新的治疗头颈部癌症的临床试验。

The project involves developing a novel treatment for head and neck cancer. Head and neck cancer represent a number of different diseases including oral cancers and cancers of the oesophagus and larynx. Latest figures show that more than 16,000 cases of these cancers are diagnosed annually in the UK. Current treatments for head and neck cancer can lead to significant loss of quality of life through loss of speech, difficulties eating and drinking and disfigurement. The treatment we propose here, Photodynamic Therapy (PDT), is much milder than surgery or radiotherapy and consists of administering a dye which localises in the tumour. Visible light, without heat, is used to activate the dye inside the cancer and this causes the release of a toxic form of oxygen (singlet oxygen). Singlet oxygen has a very short sphere of activity and if it does not react with a cancer cell component it returns to the normal, non-toxic form of oxygen. If sufficient singlet oxygen is generated within the tumour the cancer can be destroyed. Preliminary results have shown that a monoclonal antibody that targets head and neck cancer can be loaded with PDT dyes to deliver a high dose, and that this has been effective in model systems. We plan, during this project, to accumulate sufficient data to begin a clinical trial of this new treatment for head and neck cancer.