The Nobel Laureates' discovery can bring new cancer drugs

It is a kind of brake medication, which prevents the cancerous tumors from continuing to grow.

The starting point is the proteins called HIF, which the whole year's Nobel Prize in medicine is about. These HIF proteins are activated in the body to increase oxygen supply. This happens, for example, when we exercise and our bodies then feel that certain parts of us need more oxygen.

- The problem is that cancer tumors can hijack this system and use it for a malicious purpose. They also want more oxygen and blood vessel growth to the tumor, explains Nobel Laureate William Kaelin for SVT.

But both Willian Kaelin and the other recipients of this year's Nobel Prize in medicine - Sir Peter Ratcliffe and Gregg Semenza - are now working for treatments that stunt the growth of cancer.

- We have a new drug that looks promising in kidney cancer, says William Kaelin.

At Gregg Semanza's lab, new trials for breast cancer are currently underway based on the same thinking model.

Shaun Tierny is one of the patients who was helped by the Nobel Laureates' new discovery, against his liver cancer. He got his diagnosis in 2007, and then the cancer was already a long way off.

- The ultrasound revealed that my body was full of tumors, Shaun Tierny tells SVT.

In addition, his cancer was resistant to both cell toxins and radiation therapy. He was judged to have a short time to live. But then he came to the hospital in Boston, where one of this year's Nobel Laureates is a doctor, and then turned all his cancer thanks to the new brake drugs now being tested.

- Nobel laureate William Kaelin is a real hero, it is thanks to him I live, Shaun Tierny tells SVT.

However, another of this year's Nobel laureates emphasizes that much remains to be done to seriously develop more medicines based on this year's Nobel Prize discovery.

- To be clear, it should be pointed out that, as I see it anyway, we do not yet know exactly how the cancer and this system work together. But as a treatment alternative, it still looks hopeful, says Nobel Laureate Sir Peter Ratcliffe.

More about the Nobel Prize, the body's oxygen system, how it is affected by exercise - and about new cancer drugs in the Science world in SVT Play from December 8 and on SVT2 on December 9 at 8 pm.