Despite Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) being a rare cancer, it’s the most common soft tissue cancer (sarcoma) in children, with around 70 new cases in the UK every year. RMS develops from skeletal muscle cells, which make up voluntary muscles—those that we can control to move parts of our body. This is why RMS can occur in various parts of the body.

First-line treatment for RMS involves chemotherapy drugs such as cyclophosphamide and ifosfamide. These are prodrugs, meaning they are activated once inside the body, where they damage the DNA of cancer cells and kill them. However, they are activated non-selectively in the liver by enzymes called cytochromes P450 (CYP), and this causes toxicity, resulting in harmful and unwanted side effects.

The “Investigation of CYP2W1 as a Therapeutic Target in Childhood Rhabdomyosarcoma” PhD studentship aims to develop a more effective and less toxic treatment for young patients battling this aggressive cancer.

A novel prodrug was developed called duocarmycin, it is a member of the cytochrome p450 family but is unique to tumours. Duocarmycin has been shown to destroy cancer cells that express the CYP2W1 enzyme, this studentship investigates this further. The selective expression of the CYP2W1 enzyme makes it an attractive therapeutic target for RMS as it may allow more specific targeting of cancer cells for destruction while sparing healthy cells. This research may also lead to the design of new drugs that specifically inhibit CYP2W1.

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