Injections hope for cancer sufferers

Scientists used injections of vitamin A to alter the growing conditions of pancreatic tumours. By treating normal cells surrounding the cancer “seed”, they managed to suppress the cancer’s growth.

The technique is based on the “seed and soil” theory originally proposed by London surgeon Stephen Paget, from St Bartholomew’s Hospital, in 1889.

Dr Hemant Kocher, from the Barts Cancer Institute, said: “Dr Paget studied why breast cancer prefers to spread into certain organs like liver and the bone over other areas of the body. He believed those organs provided a more fertile environment for the cancer to seed itself in.

“We took his theory a major step forward by testing the effect of vitamin A – which influences the way cells behave – in samples from pancreatic cancer patients.”

Pancreatic cancer, one of the most deadly cancers, kills almost 7,500 people each year in the UK and 250,000 around the world.

One of its best known victims was Ghost and Dirty Dancing star Swayze, who died in 2009.

People with pancreatic cancer are deficient in many vitamins, including vitamin A which is found in foods such as carrots and broccoli.

Dr Kocher’s team, working with colleagues in the Netherlands, restored normal levels of vitamin A to cells around the cancer, referred to as “the soil”.

The scientists found the cells switched from facilitating to inhibiting cancer growth.

“We found that paying attention to the non-cancerous tissue surrounding the seed of the cancer is as important as focusing on the cancer itself,” said Dr Kocher, whose findings appear in the journal Gastroenterology.

“Vitamin A is just one example of an agent that can be added to alter the nature of the soil.

“Other vitamins and medicines could further change the soil’s structure so this is really opening up a whole new field.”