Scientists have come across a new cancer-killing treatment that appears to have no side effects.
Cancer is the cause for 500,000 deaths in the United States each year, reported the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To fight the fatal disease, a group of scientists, under the leadership of University of Missouri Curators' Professor M. Frederick Hawthorne, started a mission to find a cure.
According to a news report by Science Daily, they have finally been successful and announced the development of a new cancer-killing treatment. The treatment, which includes a new form of radiation therapy was tested on mice and found to have no side effects.
"Since the 1930s, scientists have sought success with a cancer treatment known as boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT)," said Hawthorne, a recent winner of the National Medal of Science awarded by President Obama in the White House. "Our team at MU's International Institute of Nano and Molecular Medicine finally found the way to make BNCT work by taking advantage of a cancer cell's biology with nanochemistry."
Cancer cells are known to grow faster than normal cells and absorb all the minerals in the body. Taking advantage of this occurence, Hawthorne forced the cancer cells to absorb and store a boron chemical designed by him. Once this chemical was infused into the cancer cell, it tore it apart, sparing the neighboring healthy cells.
"A wide variety of cancers can be attacked with our BNCT technique," Hawthorne said. "The technique worked excellently in mice. We are ready to move on to trials in larger animals, then people. However, before we can start treating humans, we will need to build suitable equipment and facilities. When it is built, MU will have the first radiation therapy of this kind in the world."
The findings of the study are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
