Nanoparticle-delivered 'Suicide' Genes Slowed Ovarian Tu...(nt. They found that while treated tumors...),Health

Furthermore, four of the treated tumors failed to grow at all, while all control tumors increased in size. Administration of nanoparticles to three different ovarian cancer mouse models prolonged lifespan by nearly four weeks and suppressed tumor growth more effectively, and with minimal non-specific cytotoxicity, than in mice treated with clinically relevant doses of cisplatin and paclitaxel.

Edward Sausville, M.D., Ph.D., an associate editor of Cancer Research and associate director for clinical research at the Greenebaum Cancer Center at the University of Maryland, said this report illustrates significant progress in targeted therapy.

"In oncology we have been studying ways to kill tumors for a long time, but much of this has run up against the real estate principle of location, location, location," he said. "In other words, an effective therapy is not effective if it cannot get to the target."

Sausville said a major accomplishment of this research is the multiple ways it can target ovarian cancer cells, as scientists were able to deliver diphtheria toxin genes, using a nanoparticle, to the actual tumor site (peritoneum) with a basis for selective activity in the cancer cells (how the toxin genes were regulated once inside the cells).

"A real plus of a cancer therapy like this is not just the functionality of the nanoparticle construct molecule, but the ability to deliver the toxin to the tumor cells," said Sausville, who agrees that inception of clinical trials could be just 18 months away.

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