Dr Istvan Nagy and his team are finding new ways to treat severe pain caused by breast and prostate cancers spreading to the bone.
In this section
What's the challenge?
The bone is one of the most common places that breast and prostate cancers can spread to. When this happens, it’s called metastatic (or secondary) cancer. Currently, metastatic breast and prostate cancer can be treated, but it can’t be cured.
One of the most common symptoms people have when metastatic cancer develops in the bone is pain. It’s often described as "gnawing". It occurs when resting or sleeping, and may get worse at night. It’s hard to get under control, and it has debilitating impacts on people’s quality of life.
We need to find effective ways to treat this pain.
Severe pain is one of the most common symptoms when breast or prostate cancer spreads to the bone. And all too often, this pain can’t be controlled by available pain relief. Our research hopes to change this. We recently discovered a group of sensory neurons responsible for persistent pain that could unlock a better quality of life for all these people.
Dr Istvan Nagy
The science behind the project
Istvan and his team have recently found a specific group of cells among nerve cells called primary sensory neurons, that are involved in the development of long-term pain. And they predict that these neurons are also responsible for the pain caused when cancer spreads to the bones.
To test this, the team aims to understand how these neurons are involved in pain. Using human cells grown both in the lab and in mice, they’re studying how the spread of cancer to the bone changes the activity and function of these neurons.
The neurons the team are studying contain a protein, called TRPV1. The TRPV1 protein is responsible for pain during inflammation caused by cancer cells in the bone. Istvan’s team has found a “switch” inside the neuron that turns the TRPV1 gene on (which makes the TRPV1 protein) when the neuron senses inflammation. Istvan’s research is exploring what exactly that switch does.
First, the researchers want to understand more about how these neurons are involved in pain, and how they behave when breast and prostate cancers spread to the bone. Then they can look at ways to block them, to see if this can reduce the pain without the side effects of current pain relief.
What difference will this project make?
This research hopes to find new ways to control the pain people feel when breast or prostate cancer has spread to their bones. Istvan’s team aims to develop a new type of pain relief that’s more effective and won’t have as many side effects as the ones that are currently available.
How many people could this project help?
This project may be able to help many with metastatic cancer in their bones who experience severe pain. This includes the estimated 61,000 people who are living with metastatic breast cancer and those living with metastatic prostate in the UK.
The bone metastasis collaboration fund
This research project is jointly funded by Breast Cancer Now and Prostate Cancer Research. If breast and prostate cancers spread, one of the most common places they spread to is the bone. We’ve come together to tackle metastatic cancer that has spread to the bone.