{"id":226853,"date":"2025-12-12T15:34:56","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T01:34:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=226853"},"modified":"2025-12-12T15:46:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T01:46:20","slug":"switching-drugs-cancer-treatment-effectiveness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/12\/12\/switching-drugs-cancer-treatment-effectiveness\/","title":{"rendered":"Switching drugs may boost cancer treatment effectiveness"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> < 1<\/span> minute<\/span><\/span>
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UH<\/abbr> Cancer Center<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Cancer Center<\/a> study suggests that breast cancer patients may benefit longer from antibody-drug treatments if doctors switch to a different drug type after the first one stops working.<\/p>\n

Presented December 10, 2025, at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, the research shows that in laboratory and animal models, tumors that stopped responding to one antibody-drug conjugate (ADC<\/abbr>) regained sensitivity when treated with a follow-up ADC<\/abbr> carrying a different drug class.<\/p>\n

ADC<\/abbr>s work by using an antibody to guide a potent cancer drug directly to tumor cells. Many breast cancer ADC<\/abbr>s, however, use the same DNA<\/abbr>-targeting drug type, and clinical experience has shown that using similar ADC<\/abbr>s back-to-back often provides limited benefit.<\/p>\n

The UH<\/abbr> team found this may be due to cross-resistance. In models of both HER2-positive and triple-negative breast cancer, switching from a DNA<\/abbr>-targeting drug to a cell-division\u2013blocking drug restored tumor control, even though the antibody was still hitting the same cancer-cell marker.<\/p>\n

“A simple takeaway is this: After a cancer progresses on one ADC<\/abbr>, choose the next ADC<\/abbr> with a different kind of drug,” said Jangsoon (Jason) Lee, associate professor and director of the UH<\/abbr> Cancer Center Preclinical Core. “This drug-guided approach could help these smart treatments work longer for patients.”<\/p>\n

“These findings show that drug resistance is not necessarily the end of the line for cancer patients,” added Naoto T. Ueno, UH<\/abbr> Cancer Center director. “Choosing the right kind of drug next could help more patients benefit from ADC<\/abbr>s.”<\/p>\n

The UH<\/abbr> Cancer Center is now working with clinical partners to design studies that match the next ADC<\/abbr>\u2019s drug payload to how a patient\u2019s tumor becomes resistant, aiming to extend treatment benefit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UH<\/abbr> research shows switching ADC<\/abbr> drug types may restore breast cancer treatment benefit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[218,165,169,9],"class_list":["post-226853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-cancer","tag-health","tag-uh-cancer-center","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t