Breakthroughs in cancer chemotherapy do not cause side effects

British scientists have developed a new cancer treatment that helps kill tumors without harming healthy cells.

This new treatment is called a 'smart bomb' - a drug that can find and destroy tumors without hurting other healthy cells of the body, thus limiting the effects. Side effects are often associated with current chemotherapy drugs such as alopecia, nausea and immune system decline.

Professor Laurence Patterson of the University of Bradford, UK, said: 'We have a type of' smart bomb 'that will only activate in tumors and not harm normal cells.'

'This is a new cancer treatment that can work in almost all types of cancer. We tested with bowel cancer, prostate cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer and connective tissue cancer, all of which responded to this new treatment, ' Patterson said.

GS. Laurence Patterson with cancer medicine 'smart bomb'-
Help destroy tumors without damaging healthy cells.

This drug was developed based on an improved version of Coltrazine's current cancer treatment drug. Under normal circumstances, Coltrazine is indicated as part of a patient's chemotherapy regimen, but along with attacking cancer cells, it can also destroy healthy cells.

Patterson's team has been working to make Coltrazine activate only when exposed to tumors by attaching an amino acid chain to Coltrazine that makes the drug inert. Thus, the drug can move freely throughout the body but will not destroy any cells it contacts. Only when it comes to the location of a solid tumor, the amino acid chain will be removed by an enzyme that appears on the surface of the cancer cell called MMP-1 . At this point, Coltrazine will activate and can perform the task of destroying nearby cells.

MMP1 is used by tumors to break down the surrounding cell environment and allow the tumor to invade normal cells. It also allows the tumor to access nutrients and oxygen by sucking blood supply into it.

'If you' starve 'the tumor, you will suppress its ability to grow and spread throughout its body , ' Patterson said.

In mouse experiments, Patterson delineated the anticancer drug to the correct location of the tumor and thus limited the effect of the drug on the entire body. All mice that received human cancer cells reacted to this targeted treatment and the tumors were found to be shrinking. In half of the rats that participated in the experiment, the blocks disappeared completely.

The use of this technique is important in that it can reach tumors scattered throughout the body.

Paul Workman, head of the treatment department at the British Cancer Research Institute, commented: 'This new method is great in that it targets blood vessels that nourish the growth tumor. The project is only in the early stages but has brought very promising results in laboratory research models. If invested in a larger-scale study, drugs based on this method could be very useful in a combination therapy for various types of cancer '.

Scientists at the University of Bradford hope that, if there is enough funding, they can start phase 1 with the distribution of drugs to patients at selected hospitals within the next 18 months.