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| World Home » Life Style » | Sun. Oct 12, 2008 |
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Scorpion venom-derived tumour paint set to revolutionise cancer treatment MIL/ANI, Jul 16, 2007. Washington: July 16, 2007 - A peptide derived form scorpion is all set to revolutionise the fight against cancer, as a paint made from it has the capability of illuminating cancer cells in a way that enables surgeons to precisely see where a tumour begins and ends. Researchers at Seattle Children’s Hospital Research Institute and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center say that the tumour paint can help doctors distinguish between cancer cells and normal brain tissue by enabling them to see cancer cells 500 times better than an magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The researchers claim that the tumour paint can enable surgeons to see tumours “live” during surgery, for which the medical science has been lacking methodology until so far. A report about the discovery, published in the journal Cancer Research, says that the tumour paint is basically the peptide chlorotoxin, which is linked to the molecular beacon Cy5.5 that emits photons in the near infrared spectrum. This illumination gives surgeons a better chance of removing all of the cancerous cells during surgery without injuring surrounding healthy tissue. The process is particularly significant in the brain, where approximately 80 per cent of malignant cancers recur at the edges of the surgical site. While MRI can distinguish tumours from healthy tissues only if more than one million cancer cells are present, Cy5.5 can do this task even when the cell count is as low as 2000. This is what makes it 500 times more sensitive than MRI. "My greatest hope is that tumor paint will fundamentally improve cancer therapy. By allowing surgeons to see cancer that would be undetectable by other means, we can give our patients better outcomes,” said senior study author Dr. James M. Olson. A study of mice led by him has shown that the new paint is effective in lighting up brain tumours as small as one millimetre in diameter, without lighting up the surrounding normal brain tissue. In a prostate cancer model, as few as 200 cancer cells travelling in a mouse lymph channel could be detected. “I feel fortunate to be working with gifted scientists to bring this revolutionary imaging technique from the laboratory to the bedside. This development has the potential to save lives and make brain tumor resection safer,” said Dr. Richard Ellenbogen, Pediatric Neurosurgeon, Seattle Children's Hospital and co-investigator on the study. Dr. Olson believes that Chlorotoxin has the potential to be used in the future as a non-invasive screening tool for early detection of skin, cervical, esophageal, colon and lung cancers. It is also useful in identifying positive lymph nodes that could mean a significant advancement for breast, prostate and testicular cancers, he says. The researchers are contemplating conducting the necessary toxicity studies before seeking approval from the Food and Drug Administration to begin clinical trials. (ANI)
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