How this cancer drug could make radiation a slam dunk therapy

Medical Xpress December 10, 2024
University of California, San Francisco

Radiation is one of the most effective ways to kill a tumor. But these therapies are indiscriminate, and they can damage healthy tissues.

Now, UC San Francisco scientists have developed a way to deliver radiation just to cancerous cells. The therapy combines a drug to mark the cancer cells for destruction and a radioactive antibody to kill them.

It wiped out bladder and lung tumors in mice without causing lethargy or weight loss—the typical side effects of radiation therapy.

“This is a one-two punch,” said Charly Craik, Ph.D., a professor of pharmaceutical chemistry at UCSF and co-senior author of the study, which appears Dec. 10 in Cancer Research. “We could potentially kill the tumors before they can develop resistance.”

A...

Today's Sponsors

Today's Sponsor