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A group of scientists claim to have discovered “smarter chemotherapy” that can precisely target cancer cells rather than existing treatments that also impact the areas around these cells.
The technique, which relies on DNA editing technology, has already been used in mice and could be used in humans as early as the next two years, the scientists said.
Professor Dan Peer, a cancer expert from Israel University in Tel Aviv, explained that there were “no side effects” and that they believed that “a cancer cell treated in this way would not would never become active again ”, according to Times of Israel.
“This technology can extend the life expectancy of cancer patients and we hope to cure the disease one day.”
The study by scientists from Tel Aviv University, New York University and Harvard Medical School was published in the journal Scientific advances.
Scientists say this is the first time in the world that Crispr genome editing technology, which works by cutting out a section of DNA, has been used effectively to treat cancer in an animal.
Professor Peer explained that if this technology is used, in all three treatments, “we can destroy a tumor” because it can “physically cut the DNA of cancer cells, and those cells will not survive.”
He admitted the technology needs to be “further developed” but said the key point of the current study is that it has shown that it can “kill cancer cells”.
Scientists noted that mice with cancer who received the treatment had a doubled life expectancy and that their survival rate was 30% higher than the control group.
Professor Peer pointed out that once adapted to humans, this treatment could be highly personalized and tailored to each patient administered, either as a general injection or as an injection directly into the tumor.
For the study, researchers focused on two of the deadliest cancers – metastatic ovarian cancer and glioblastoma, which is an aggressive type of brain cancer. In glioblastoma, the life expectancy and survival rate are usually very low.
But, according to the study, the glioblastoma injection resulted in “50% inhibition of tumor growth” and “30% improvement in survival”, while in ovarian tumor it “a increased survival by 80% ”.
“The ability to disrupt in vivo gene expression in tumors opens up new avenues for cancer treatment and research and potential applications for targeted gene editing of non-cancerous tissues,” the study said.
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