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Week 52/2007: New lymphatic vessels to cancer patients through gene therapy

Urban residents facing urban problems

Lymphatic vessels damaged by cancer treatment can be regenerated through gene therapy. Research headed by Academy Professor Kari Alitalo was able to demonstrate this using mouse models. The results were published in Nature Medicine.
In conjunction with cancer treatment, lymph nodes often need to be removed, which can lead to lymphoedema, a highly inconvenient localised fluid retention. The absence of lymph nodes also increases the risk of general susceptibility to infection and the cancer spreading if it recurs.

Through growth factor therapy it is possible to induce the maturation of new lymphatic vessels, and to restore a functional lymphatic system. The therapy does not regenerate the removed lymph nodes, but enables the transplantation of new nodes to replace them. The researchers excised the axillary lymph nodes from mice and the connected collecting lymphatic vessels, after which some of the mice received growth factor therapy.

“The mice that received the growth factor showed more robust growth in the lymphatic vessels, and swelling was more strongly alleviated than in the control subjects,” says Tuomas Tammela. “Moreover, the lymph vessels in the treated mice clearly incorporated more successfully into the lymph node transplants. Considering patient care, it is significant that the nodes can also act as a barrier to the spread of cancer cells.”

Lymphoedema is not a problem that afflicts cancer patients exclusively. It is also caused by a common tropical disease, lymphatic filariasis. “There is currently no cure for lymphoedema, but based on these results, it seems possible to develop one,” says Tammela.

Lymph node transplants may also be beneficial in treating chronic infections and as an adjuvant cancer treatment.

Text: Päivi Lehtinen
Picture: Tuomas Tammela
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Translation: Valtasana Oy