Study reveals that more patients will survive thanks to new cancer drug
The chances of surviving breast and prostate cancer could significantly improve after scientists discovered a suicidal cancer cell drug.
The drug, dubbed STX140, is capable of targeting cancer cells by initiating a natural suicide process within them, as well as stopping the growth of new blood vessels required to nourish cancer cells.
The study, published in the British Journal of Cancer, involved giving the drug to mice for 60 days. The results showed that five out of eight tumours shrank in size, with two disappearing completely after 88 days. Although the remaining three tumours did not shrink, they did not grow either.
According to the study: "STX140 could be dosed daily over a 60-day period leading to tumour regression and complete responses, which were maintained after the cessation of dosing".
The research also found that it can be dosed orally with "no toxicity even after prolonged daily dosing".
Another study, published in the International Journal of Cancer, has found that light beams could detect cervical cancer.
The idea is that a light beam is shone on the cells and the beam would scatter differently according to whether the cells were cancerous or not. This would effectively alleviate pressure from the workload of the conventional smear test and enable cancer to be detected earlier.
Last month, the journal, Chronic Illness, said patient pressure had influenced how scientific advances in the space of only 50 years had transformed childhood cancer from a fatal disease into one that the majority of newly diagnosed children can expect to survive.
