Posted 1/6/2010 4:57 PM (GMT 0)
Interesting reading.
Tuesday, 05 January 2010
PHILADELPHIA, PA, USA (News Release) - December 29, 2009 - US researchers discovered an antibody that tracks down prostate cancer cells in mice and can destroy the disease even in its advanced stages, a new study shows.
The antibody, known as F77, was found to bond more easily to cancerous tissues and cells than with benign tissues and cells, and actively strived to kill the cancerous tissue, according to the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
When injected in mice, F77 bonded with the cancerous tissue in nearly 97 percent of all the cases where prostate cancer was the primary cancer. It also bonded in tissue cores where the cancer had metastasized at about 85 percent of the time. It even recognized androgen-independent cancer cells that are present when prostate cancer is incurable, the study showed. F77 "initiated direct cell death of prostate cancer cells... and effectively prevented tumor outgrowth," the study said.
Although F77 attacked the cancerous prostate tissues, it did not attack tumor tissues in other parts of the body including the colon, kidney, cervix, pancreas, lung, skin, or bladder. According to the study, it also did not target normal healthy or benign tissue.
F77 does show “promising potential for diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer, especially for androgen-independent metastasized prostate cancer,” which often spreads to the bones and is difficult to treat, the researchers wrote in PNAS.
According to the study, the five-year survival rate for metastasized prostate cancer is only 34 percent. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer among men, claiming half a million lives each year worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).Now with the discovery of F77, this number could dramatically drop and possibly in the future we could wipe out prostate cancer all together.
Source: RedOrbit Staff & Wire Reports