HIV drug could stop skin cancer becoming drug-resistant

Source: Cancer Research UK, March 2016

An HIV drug could stop one of the early changes in skin cancer cells that leads to them becoming resistant to treatment, according to a Cancer Research UK-funded study published in Cancer Cell*.

The researchers looked at melanoma skin cancers from 11 patients who had started standard treatment for the cancer**. They found that the cancer cells used a molecular switch to temporarily rewire themselves to become more able to withstand the drugs in the first two weeks of treatment, and then went on to develop permanent resistance through genetic changes.

The HIV drug, called nelfinavir, works by blocking the molecular switch which boosts cells’ ability to survive treatment. The research, carried out in mice, suggests that nelfinavir could be used in combination with standard skin cancer treatments to make them more potent and delay drug resistance, making available treatments effective for a longer period of time.