Existing chemotherapy often comes with punishing side-effects
Credit: iStockphoto
SYDNEY: A cancer treatment has been developed which delivers lethal doses of drugs to tumours without the usual harmful side-effects such as nausea and hair loss.
Australian scientists say that the cutting-edge technique uses nanotechnology to create particles that directly strike at cancer cells with a "lethal payload" of drugs, without flooding the body with toxic chemicals.
Chemotherapy typically involves subjecting the patient's entire body to the powerful drugs in order to kill the cancer, causing debilitating side effects that the new, targeted technique would eliminate.
"Your hair wouldn't fall out, you wouldn't throw up... some chemotherapy is life-threatening in itself," said Jennifer MacDiarmid of Sydney-based biotechnology company EnGeneIC.
Researchers there have used bacterial cells stripped of reproductive powers to develop receptacles capable of carrying any chemotherapy drug.
Nano-cells
These 'nano-cells', which are about one-fifth the size of of normal human cells, are then tagged with antibodies, which are attracted to cancerous tumours. Once the nano-cell hits the cancer and attaches, the drug is released directly into the malignant growth.
"There is no other system where you can get so much drug concentrated into a little parcel," MacDiarmid said.
The results of animal trials published this week in the U.S. journal Cancer Cell show that the technique has reduced tumours in animals without toxic side effects and by using only a very small amount of drugs.
MacDiarmid said the treatment could potentially be used on any solid tumours including those in the breasts, ovaries, colon and lungs.
In future, the treatment could allow for the creation of tailored 'drug cocktails' for individual patients. This would help counter drug resistance and could lower costs, as a smaller amount of drugs would be needed, she said.
The team hopes to start human trials by the end of this year.
Now, suppose there w
Now, suppose there were things that by right should absolutely not be in our power, or, in other words, that it would be wrong or inconsistent with the freedom of all, according to universal law, to make use of them.