From diagnostic tool to cancer therapyAugust 20, 2003Cancer patients could be benefiting more than they realise from diagnostic scans. Research published today in Breast Cancer Research suggests that a radioactive molecule widely used to evaluate advanced tumours can kill cancer cells. Dr Ekaterina Dadachova and her team from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, USA, examined how radioactive glucose affects breast tumours in mice. They found that, injected at certain doses, the radiation from the glucose killed cancer cells without being toxic to other tissues. Glucose that is tagged with radioactive fluorine-18 is commonly used in PET imaging (positron emission tomography imaging) to examine the size and progression of a known tumour. The method exploits the way in which normal glucose is metabolised by the body. When a patient is injected with radioactive glucose, the cells of the body try to use it as they would normal glucose. However, the fluorine prevents the radioactive glucose from being completely metabolised. Instead the glucose is trapped inside the cells. The patient is then scanned and doctors can see where the radioactive substance has been stored by analysing the pattern of energy it emits. Cancerous tissue, which uses more glucose than normal tissue, absorbs more radioactivity and appears brighter on the PET images. Dr Dadachova and colleagues suggest that: "Metabolic trapping of fluorine-18 labelled glucose is an attractive mechanism to deliver radioactivity to tumours as cancer cells have enhanced rates of glucose utilisation." The treatment would be relatively well tolerated by the body because the greatest amount of radioactivity is delivered straight to the tumour cells with relatively little of it affecting healthy tissues. The tissue most sensitive to radiation is the bone marrow. If it is damaged, the patient can develop leukaemia. The maximum amount of radiation acceptable damages less than 5% of the marrow over 5 years. Even this low level carries a small risk. Dadachova's team assessed five breast cancer patients using PET imaging. They injected the patients with an acceptable amount of radioactive glucose and assessed how much of this was taken up by the tumours. They concluded that, because the cancer cells preferentially take up the radioactivity, cancer cells could be killed using doses within the range tolerated by the bone marrow. Using radiation to kill cancer cells is not a new idea. Many cancers are treated with external or internal radiotherapy. The radioactive sources that are commonly used emit electrons, i.e. negative particles. The potential of sources giving off positive particles called positrons, such as fluorine-18, have been widely overlooked so far. "We can envisage the application of other positron-emitters which have longer half-lives and emit higher energy positrons than those emitted by fluorine-18 for positron tumour therapy", write the authors. Dadachova adds: "Another advantage of using the fluorine-labelled glucose for therapy of metastatic breast cancer is that this drug is FDA (Federal Drug Administration)-approved, which greatly simplifies the initiation of clinical trials of this therapy." Breast cancer is still a major cause of death in women in the developed world, with one in nine women developing the disease during their lifetime. Dadachova believes that treatment with radioactive glucose could be particularly effective in patients with advanced metastatic breast cancer who otherwise have a poor prognosis. BioMed Central Limited |
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| Related Breast Cancer Current Events and Breast Cancer News Articles Menopause-cardiology consensus statement on cardiovascular disease and on HRT A menopause-cardiology consensus statement has called for direct action to prevent cardiovascular disease (CVD) in menopausal women. The statement also concludes that there is little evidence of increased CVD risk in taking HRT. Researchers Identify Role of Gene in Tumor Development, Growth and Progression Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center and VCU Institute of Molecular Medicine researchers have identified a gene that may play a pivotal role in two processes that are essential for tumor development, growth and progression to metastasis. UCLA researchers create 'fly paper' to capture circulating cancer cells Just as fly paper captures insects, an innovative new device with nano-sized features developed by researchers at UCLA is able to grab cancer cells in the blood that have broken off from a tumor. Fertility procedures need not delay breast cancer treatment for younger women A new study published in the November issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons shows that breast cancer patients under 40 years old who undergo fertility preservation do not face a significant delay in the treatment of their disease when their care is coordinated in a timely fashion. Coffee break: Compound brewing new research in colon, breast cancer A compound in coffee has been found to be estrogenic in studies by Texas AgriLife Research scientists. Drugs to treat anemia in cancer patients linked to thromboembolism Medications frequently given to cancer patients to reduce their risk of anemia are associated with an increased risk of deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism, according to new research led by Dawn Hershman, M.D, M.S., co-director of the breast cancer program at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center. Discovery in worms by Queen's researchers points to more targeted cancer treatment Researchers at Queen's University have found a link between two genes involved in cancer formation in humans, by examining the genes in worms. The groundbreaking discovery provides a foundation for how tumor-forming genes interact, and may offer a drug target for cancer treatment. FDA approved leukemia drugs shows promise in ovarian cancer cells The drug Sprycel, approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia, significantly inhibited the growth and invasiveness of ovarian cancer cells and also promoted their death, a study by researchers with UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center found. Carnegie Mellon researchers link health-care debate to risk of dying in US and Europe The current health care debate in the United States is complicated. Trade-offs between heath care expenditures, lifestyle choices and life expectancy have been suggested but seldom clearly demonstrated. Scientists uncover new key to the puzzle of hormone therapy and breast cancer The use of postmenopausal hormone therapy has decreased over time in the United States, which researchers suggest may play a key role in the declining rate of atypical ductal hyperplasia, a known risk factor for breast cancer. More Breast Cancer Current Events and Breast Cancer News Articles |
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