Health Scan: Chance discovery can stop cancer in its tracks

[Behind the Aegis]

Sometimes, research in one field can lead to discoveries in an entirely different one. An example is work carried out at The Hebrew University's Faculty of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Quality new drug treatment for halting the growth and spread of cancer cells.

The approach has been shown to inhibit malignant cells without affecting normal ones, and without the severe side effects of traditional treatments. researchers isolated the malignant tumor from its nutritional and oxygen supplies, thereby halting its growth and stopping metastases from spreading to other parts of the body.

The team - headed by Prof. Oded Shoseyov and including Dr. Levava Roiz, Dr. Patricia Smirnoff and Dr. Betty Schwartz - published their discoveries in the American Cancer Society's journal Cancer.

The HU researchers' approach is based on the actions of actibind, a protein produced by the black mold Aspergillus niger, a well-known microorganism used in biotech and food technology. In plants, actibind binds actin, a major component of the intracellular structure in plants, interfering with the plants' pollen tubes and halting cell growth.

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[OzarkDem]

1. Interesting, hope it works out

Anti-angiogenesis drugs hold a lot of promise. Not only do they have the potential to work on any solid tumor - type cancer, but they also can be helpful to people whose cancer has already metastasized. They're also finding they work well in combination with other types of chemo, for example Genentech has a clinical trial that combines Avastin (an anti-angiogenic) with carboplatin and taxol. So you have the dual action of one drug to stop migration of cancer cells to the bloodstream and two others to destroy the tumor.


http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct/show/NCT00127920

We need more of them, because Avastin hasn't been as successful in all cancers the way everyone had hoped.