Support for Cancer Medicine Discovery at the Institute of Cancer Therapeutics

A team at the Institute of Cancer Therapeutics is designing drugs that only activate inside tumours, using enzymes naturally overabundant in the cancer environment. Standard chemotherapy drugs damage healthy tissue because they cannot distinguish between cancer cells and normal cells. This programme targets two specific enzyme families—matrix metalloproteinases and cytochromes P450—that are overexpressed in tumours. The researchers will create "prodrugs" that remain inactive until these enzymes switch them on, confining the toxic effect to the tumour. Separately, they will develop small molecules that block cell-adhesion processes enabling cancer cells to detach and spread, and inhibitors of chemokine signalling pathways (CXCR4 and CXCR7) that drive cell migration and metastasis. A new proteomic method will help identify and measure these enzyme targets in patient samples. If successful, this work could produce more selective cancer treatments with fewer side effects than conventional chemotherapy. It may also yield drugs that prevent or slow metastasis—the main cause of cancer deaths. The programme is applied drug discovery, building on existing collaborations that have already validated the biological targets.