Scan drug 'boosts cancer therapy'

E.Nigma · medicine forum beginner Joined: 06 Apr 2006 Posts: 14

As published on the BBC World Service.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/health/4998056.stm

Friday, 19 May 2006, 23:03 GMT 00:03 UK

Scan drug 'boosts cancer therapy'

A drug used to help doctors interpret medical scans may also help to
boost the potency of anti-cancer therapies, research suggests.

Mangafodipir is used as a contrast agent in hi-tech magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI).

French researchers found it increased the cancer-killing ability of
some chemotherapy drugs, while at the same time protecting normal cells.

Details are published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

"We welcome the discovery that this well-understood and tolerated
chemical can increase the effectiveness of conventional chemotherapy"
Henry Scowcroft

Many anti-cancer drugs work by increasing the levels of hydrogen
peroxide in tumour cells.

Tumour cells are particularly sensitive to the chemical, and die as a
result.

However, certain enzymes in the body can work to protect cells from
this kind of damage, rendering certain cancer drugs less effective.

In addition, the drugs are toxic to normal cells.

Double effect
Mangafodipir was found to help promote the production of hydrogen
peroxide while at the same time, through different biological
mechanisms, protecting healthy cells from damage.

A team from the Groupe hospitalier Cochin-Saint Vincent de Paul in
Paris carried out tests on tumour cells and white blood cells taken
from cancer patients, and white blood cells taken from healthy patients.

Each type of cell was exposed to three chemotherapy drugs - paclitaxel,
oxaliplatin, and 5-fluorouracil - in the presence and absence of
mangafodipir.

Mangafodipir was found to protect the white blood cells taken from both
the healthy volunteers and the cancer patients.

The researchers also studied the effects of mangafodipir on mice with
colon cancer who were being treated with paclitaxel.

Tolerated chemical
They found the drug protected the animals from infection which could
compromise their immune system, and seemed to increase the cancer-
killing potency of paclitaxel.

Henry Scowcroft, cancer information officer at Cancer Research UK,
said: "Mangafodipir was developed in the early nineties and has a good
track record in cancer diagnosis.

"We welcome the discovery that this well-understood and tolerated
chemical can increase the effectiveness of conventional chemotherapy.

"These exciting preliminary results now need to be followed up in
further trials, to make sure that the chemical is as safe when used for
treating cancers as it is for helping detect them."

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E.

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