Exposing tumors to oxygen can make radiotherapy significantly more effective in destroying cancer, research has indicated. Experiments on mice have shown that cancer cells can be “softened up” before treatment by boosting the supply of oxygen.
University of Oxford researchers have successfully trialled the pioneering technique on human patients and say that it could bring hope to thousands of people who thought their cancers were untreatable.
“We have discovered a new way of overcoming the major reason most cancers become resistant to treatment with radiation or chemotherapy,” said Professor Gillies McKenna of the university’s Gray Institute for Radiation Oncology & Biology.
“Early results from a trial of clinical patients with advanced pancreatic cancer suggest that this method can greatly improve the outcome in this disease, which is very difficult to treat.
“Clinicians in Oxford are pressing on to expand their trials to include patients with lung, cervical and rectal cancer, and they hope to begin adding patients to new trials later this year.”
He told the Daily Express: “If successful, these methods could bring new hope to patients with some of the most difficult to treat cancers.”
In new research published today in the Cancer Research journal, mice were treated with drugs that improved the stability of oxygen-bringing blood vessels in tumors.
Scientists had previously focused on cutting blood supply to tumors to starve them of nutrients.
Via Telegraph
Loading ...