A DRUG invented 60 years ago may be a cure for some of the most deadly cancers, it emerged yesterday.
Scientists have found that methotrexate, a chemotherapy treatment invented in the 1940s, has the potential to work against a genetic fault called HNPCC which is involved in many bowel cancer cases. The condition also puts people at an increased risk of other cancers.
Each year, more than 37,500 people in the UK are diagnosed with bowel cancer – more than 100 every day.
Five per cent have the HNPCC fault – of whom nearly half would have a further defect called MSH2.
Cancer cells
Scientists at the Institute of Cancer Research in London found methotrexate worked particularly well in killing cells with the MSH2 genetic fault.
A clinical trial has begun at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust in London and Surrey on patients with advanced bowel cancer.
Although one of the first chemotherapies, methotrexate has not commonly been used to treat the HNPCC fault.
Professor Alan Ashworth, who led study, said in EMBO Molecular Medicine: “Methotrexate may make an excellent treatment.”
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October 11th, 2010 at 1:26 am
Scientists have developed a new cancer treatment that can safely deliver extremely high chemotherapy doses with minimal side effects.
Excited scientists say the new-generation drug, to be announced at a leading cancer conference this week, could be used effectively against many types of tumour, reports the Daily Express.
The treatment, which has proved successful in trials on breast cancer patients, combines traditional chemotherapy with another new-generation drug that directly targets cancer cells.
Scientists have likened the treatment, code named T-DM1, to a Trojan horse because a killer drug is protected by another chemical and only activated once it hits enemy cancer cells.
This means only malignant cells are destroyed so patients have far fewer side effects associated with chemotherapy, including hair loss, weakened immune system and nausea.
The technology has been developed by US based Immunogen in combination with drug giant Roche.
“We are encouraged by the results,” said Edith Perez of Mayo Clinic.
“The study demonstrated that T-DM1 has very good anti-tumor activity as well as much lower toxicity,” she added.
The new findings would be presented at the European Society of Medical Oncology conference in Milan.