Cancer treatment targets individual cells

Melbourne researchers have developed a cancer treatment which can identify
and kill individual cancer cells.

The treatment uses antibodies and DNA to target the cells, attached to a
radioactive atom, which destroys them.

The cancer-killing molecules have been effective in laboratory tests and
could undergo clinical trials within five years.

Dr Tom Karagiannis, of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, says the treatment
is a first as it uses two levels of targeting.

"What we do is we target not only the cancer cell but also the DNA of the
cell, so it's the first time this has been done using these types of isotopes,"
he said.

Dr Karagiannis says the new treatment is the most specific yet developed.

"Our radiation is very, very specific at killing cancer cells," he said.

"It irradiates a volume of only one millionth of a millimetre and because it
does that, we can kill cancer cells specifically without doing damage to the
healthy tissue."

Source: ABC