Previous studies have shown chemotherapy and radiation can sometimes do more harm than good for cancer patients as treatments have been linked to tumor spread. Now, researchers at Vanderbilt University are working hard to develop neutralizing antibodies that could stop treatment-induced tumors in their tracks.

In order to determine the relationship between anti-cancer treatments and tumor spread, researchers at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., studied the effects of radiation and a chemotherapeutic drug called doxorubicin on mice. Study authors report both of these treatments led to two-fold increases in transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta levels as well as an increase in cancer cell proliferation and lung metastases. In subsequent trials, researchers administered a TGF-beta-neutralizing antibody into mice prior to radiation. They found irradiated mice treated with TGF-beta antibodies had fewer tumors after therapy than their antibody-free counterparts, which means TGF-beta could play a key role in tumor spread.