(Reuters)- Cure for Cancer Found?

Teki187

Teki187

Teki187

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SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian scientists have developed a "trojan horse" therapy to combat cancer, using a bacterially-derived nano cell to penetrate and disarm the cancer cell before a second nano cell kills it with chemotherapy drugs.

The "trojan horse" therapy has the potential to directly target cancer cells with chemotherapy, rather than the current treatment that sees chemotherapy drugs injected into a cancer patient and attacking both cancer and healthy cells.

Sydney scientists Dr Jennifer MacDiarmid and Dr Himanshu Brahmbhatt, who formed EnGenelC Pty Ltd in 2001, said they had achieved 100 percent survival in mice with human cancer cells by using the "trojan horse" therapy in the past two years.

The scientists plan to start human clinical trials in the coming months. Human trials of the cell delivery system will start next week at the Peter MacCullum Cancer Center at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and The Austin at the University of Melbourne.

The therapy, published in the latest Nature Biotechnology journal, sees mini-cells called EDVs (EnGenelC Delivery Vehicle) attach and enter the cancer cell.

The first wave of mini-cells release ribonucleic acid molecules, called siRNA, which switch off the production of proteins that make the cancer cell resistant to chemotherapy.

A second wave of EDV cells is then accepted by the cancer cell and releases chemotherapy drugs, killing the cancer cell.

"The beauty is that our EDVs operate like 'Trojan Horses' They arrive at the gates of the affected cells and are always allowed in," said MacDiarmid.
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I dont want to get too excited, but this really sounds like they've cracked it. This could spell the start of something really good for people suffering from all types of cancer.
 
Don't get too excited. The press like to over hype these things and i must have seen about 10 of these type of articles in the last couple of years.
 
Gaygle said:
Don't get too excited. The press like to over hype these things and i must have seen about 10 of these type of articles in the last couple of years.
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Unfortunately I have to agree.

Would be nice to see a cure in our lifetime, and I'm pretty optimistic that most cancers will be curable within the next few years, with only a handful of more 'extreme' ones causing a bit of a headache for the scientists.

Just hope people don't use a cure as an excuse to lead a lavish lifestyle or that this cure is only available to those with money.
 
We get stories like this every year around about the time that universities and the like start their funding process. Most of these stories amount to nothing, some become practical applications for a small number of cancers. Any treatment that can save lives at a reasonable cost is to be applauded however.

What caught my eye this weekend was a story in the Sunday Express that said a cure for type one diabetes had been devised using stem cell therapy - now that is news.
 
as said by many it's not an unheard of type of story, there was one from the christie hospital a year or two ago that reckoned they'd have a cure-all for cancer within 10 years. I hope they will obviously, but it could be plenty longer
 
I don't think they've cracked it, but at least it's a significant breakthrough.

w00t for Australia. \:D/
 
Moley said:
We get stories like this every year around about the time that universities and the like start their funding process. Most of these stories amount to nothing, some become practical applications for a small number of cancers. Any treatment that can save lives at a reasonable cost is to be applauded however.

What caught my eye this weekend was a story in the Sunday Express that said a cure for type one diabetes had been devised using stem cell therapy - now that is news.
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give it a year or two and we'll have one.
 
I'm reminded of the Daily Mail's mission to divide everything in the world into substances which cause cancer and substances which cure it...


M
 
Those are some smart cookies, developing things like that!

Good idea, lets hope it follows through, and something does happen within our life time.
 
It's more difficult in the real world. In a culture dish made up of sets of cells (both cancerous and normal) then it's easy.

Cancer is, along with stem cells, the only cell that can penetrate blood vessels. If you have a cancer with it's own blood supply and then nuke the cancer cells it could cause haemorrhaging. Obviously not good if it's in a sensitive area. So the treatment will require serious care and monitoring.
 
Gaygle said:
Don't get too excited. The press like to over hype these things and i must have seen about 10 of these type of articles in the last couple of years.
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I have to disagree here a little... I'm quite interested in this subject and haven't seen anything as promising as this.

And while it may not prove 100% effective in humans, if it's just 50% effect surely that's a success!

ps: We also have to remember Syndey has some of the best cancer treatment in the world too...
 
NeilFawcett said:
I have to disagree here a little... I'm quite interested in this subject and haven't seen anything as promising as this.

And while it may not prove 100% effective in humans, if it's just 50% effect surely that's a success!

ps: We also have to remember Syndey has some of the best cancer treatment in the world too...
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There are a few different nano products on the market currently, and imo the most promising one is one marketed by a company called "Magforce" which has successfully demonstrated that they could destroy some brain tumours by using iron oxide nanoparticles (between 5-10nm) to heat the tumour and break it down. Although this therapy is (iirc) in it's final phase of human testing, all being well, it should be about 3 years until it's avaliable.

I did my final year dissertation on nano based products (particularly in regards to tumours) and i quickly found out that a lot of these news articles are misguided and dramatically oversimplify the process of developing a whole new type of therapy, like nanomedicine.

EDIT: i should say that it definately sounds like good progress, but it doesn't sound particularly groundbreaking. However, since i don't have access to journals any more, i can't really say for sure.
 
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