Cancer patients may soon use topical paste that prevents scarring after radiation therapy

A new paste has successfully reduced the amount of scars developed on cancer patients due to anti-cancer radiation. A new study suggests the anti-scarring paste could soon be prescribed by clinicians treating early-stage cancers with radiation to patients as an alternative to oral drugs.

Cancer patients commonly suffer scarring or fibrosis as they undergo initial radiation treatment, which in some cases could be severe enough to cause patients stop the treatment. The radiation applied to the skin can lead to development of fibrotic tissue and skin thickening.

The study, published in the journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, focused on the effect of a type of fibrosis called radiation dermatitis, which nearly 95 percent of patients undergoing initial radiation treatment commonly experience as a side effect of the cancer therapy.

To find an effective treatment for the side effect of the therapy, researchers from Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Centre mimicked the development of radiation dermatitis on mice. The researchers applied the paste on the genetically engineered animals, which lack a specific protein receptor known as adenosine A2A receptor, while another group of normal mice received placebo.

The team used a topical paste that contains a patented A2A receptor blocker on the genetically engineered mice daily. After a month of exposure, the group of normal mice was found to have almost two-fold increase in the amount of fibrosis, collagen and skin thickness.

While the group treated with the A2A receptor-blocking paste build up only 10 percent more skin-thickening collagen.

"Our latest study is the first to demonstrate that blocking or deleting the A2A receptor can be useful in reducing radiation-induced scarring in skin," said lead researcher Bruce Cronstein, director of NYU Langone's Clinical and Translational Science Institute. "The study also suggests that adenosine A2A receptor antagonists may have broad applications as drug therapies for preventing fibrosis and scarring, not just in the liver but also in the skin."

Cronstein said the new topical paste could significantly help cancer patients as very few of the available drugs on the market that treat fibrosis are not very effective. In addition, a topical treatment may offer more benefits as it can be applied directly to the affected skin of the patient potentially with no adverse effects.