Sep 06, 2015 09:02 AM EDT By Rashmi Kalia, UniversityHerald Reporter

A pioneering study has shown that aspirin and other drugs of the "Cox inhibitor" family boost the immunotherapy during cancer treatment by blocking the PGE2 molecules, PPPFocus reports.

Earlier studies have shown that the PGE2 molecules affect the immune system by slowing its normal response of targeting the cancer cells. The combination of aspirin and immunotherapy has been proved to work better in slowing cancer growth in mice as compared to immunotherapy alone.

The study has shown that by inhibiting the ability of the cancer cells to make PGE2 molecules, the protective barrier of the cancer cells is lifted and the immune system is able to fight against the cancer cells with full power.

Therefore, if cancer patients take aspirin along with immunotherapy, it would boost the effectiveness of the immunotherapy during stages of cancer.

Professor Caetano Reis e Sousa, who led the team from the Francis Crick Institute in London, said,

"Our whole study was based on treating cancer, but there is much research on how aspirin may prevent cancer and what we have found raises the possibility that one of its mechanisms is removing the veil in which cancer cells wrap themselves".

Prof Caetano told the BBC News website: "We are very far off patients, all this is preclinical research in mouse models, what we would like to do now is set up a clinical trial to formally demonstrate this could happen in humans."

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