A non-surgical treatment for lowrisk prostate cancer, in which
doctors inject a light-sensitive drug derived from deep-sea bacteria into a
patient's bloodstream, was shown in a trial to kill cancer cells without
destroying healthy tissue.
Results of a trial in 413 patients showed that the drug, which is
activated with a laser to destroy tumour tissue in the prostate, was so
effective that half the patients went into remission, compared with 13.5% in a
control group.“These results are excellent news for men with early localised
prostate cancer, offering a treatment that can kill cancer without removing or
destroying the prostate,“ said Mark Emberton, a University College London
consultant urologist who led the trial, “This is truly a huge leap forward.“
The treatment, called vascular-targeted photodynamic therapy or
VTP, was developed by scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel
in collaboration with the privately owned STEBA Biotech.
The light-sensitive drug used, called WST11, is derived from
bacteria found at the bottom of the ocean. To survive with very little
sunlight, they have evolved to convert light into energy with incredible
efficiency , Emberton's team said in a study published in the journal `Lancet
Oncology'.
The Weizmann scientists exploited this feature to develop WST11, a
compound that releases free radicals to kill surrounding cells when activated
by laser light.
Source: Times Of India-21st-December-2016
