Cancer locator

A team of Purdue University researchers has synthesised a molecule that finds and penetrates prostate cancer cells and has created imaging agents and therapeutic drugs that can link to the molecule and be carried with it as cargo.

A radio-imaging application used for body scans is expected to enter clinical trials this year, and an optical imaging application used to measure prostate cancer cells in blood samples is already in clinical trials.

Purdue's Prof Philip Low said a targeted treatment could be much more effective in treating cancer and would greatly reduce the harmful side effects associated with current treatments.

'Currently none of the drugs available to treat prostate cancer are targeted, which means they go everywhere in the body as opposed to only the tumour, and so are quite toxic for the patient,' adds Low. 'By being able to target only the cancer cells, we could eliminate toxic side effects of treatments. In addition, the ability to target only the cancer cells can greatly improve imaging of the cancer to diagnose the disease, determine if it has spread or is responding to treatment.'