Docs light up cancer cells to kill them

Doctors trying to detect cancer in its earliest stages may soon have the benefit of a new treatment.

CBS News correspondent Cynthia Bowers reports that the treatment forces cancer cells to reveal themselves before it's too late.

To a surgeon operating on cancer, the key is getting it all the first time. But tumors can be tiny and hard to see.

Now, a new technology developed at Purdue University actually makes cancer cells glow, so surgeons can see what they have been missing.

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Some doctors say they can remove 5 times more of the disease with the new technology versus the amount removed without it.

It works by tricking the cancer into showing itself. Researchers add a glowing dye to folic acid, a vitamin cancer cells need to grow.

Doctors then take advantage of the cancer cells' greed for folic acid, which causes them to literally light up.

The procedure hasn't yet been approved in the U.S., but Dutch doctors have performed 20 successful trial surgeries.

"We know (that) the more aggressive you are in the surgical removal of the tumor, the better the outcome of the patient will be," said Gooitzen van Dam, a surgeon with the University of Groningen.

So far, the procedure has only been used on ovarian cancer patients. But the researchers are convinced this is just the beginning.

Folic acid works on about 40 percent of the cancers, but doctors are developing similar targeting molecules for the other 60 percent of the cancers.

Even more promising, that same technology can be used to precisely target and kill cancer cells by deliver extremely power chemotherapy drugs just to cancer cells and leave healthy tissue unharmed. Those drugs are already in FDA trials.

[Odaat12]

Dear Ms. Bowers,

I am a CBS viewer / internet content reader & avid cancer-fighter / Relay-er, etc. I am excited about the topic of your article.

I closely follow a technology that I believe either is being researched along with, or could be used along with, this Purdue technology. The former, to which I refer, was invented at Duke by materials scientist Dr. David Needham.

I am writing to ask...at the end of the article you refer to,

"technology can be used to precisely target and kill cancer cells by deliver extremely power chemotherapy drugs just to cancer cells and leave healthy tissue unharmed. Those drugs are already in FDA trials." May I ask to which trials / drugs you were referring, and if, by chance, it was the lyso-thermo-sensitive liposomal targeted drug delivery approach currently in the phase III clinical "HEAT" trial. Here: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00617981?cond=HCC&spons=Celsion&spons_ex=Y&rank=1

Thank you very much for any response you could give in regard to the trials to which your article referred. I have tried to find an email for you to ask this directly, but to no avail.

Very best wishes to you, and thank you for covering novel cancer developments. They are our hope!

[WesternFlyfisher]

Its probably a little late for this reply, but I believe that dmichaelolive slightly misinformed you. Dr. Go van Dam and Vasilis Ntziachristos developed the the camera/dye and performed the surgery. Dr. Low was the person who discovered folate-receptor mediated endocytosis in cancer. There are several groups doing fluorescent guided surgeries, patentable aspects are essentially the camera and the dye used. Many groups are also using the folate to target cancer but the patents for those are all held tightly by Endocyte. Dr. Low founded Endocyte, which as stated, has several drug targeting clinical trials going:

http://www.endocyte.com/?page_id=23

Many people have worked on folate-targeted liposomes, you don't need a patent to develop something. However, if anyone wants to take it to clinic, a deal with Endocyte needs worked out.

[dmichaelolive]

This technology was not invented by Dr. Low. Drs. Go van Dam and Vasilis Ntziachristos are the inventors and principle authors on the publication. Dr. Low is affiliated with a company, Endocyte, which provided the agent. Dr. Low provided you with data that was not his to give and the European Univesities are now considering legal action. I am a collaborator with Drs van Dam and Ntziachristos and was shocked to see the credit go to Dr Low, a chemist who has never set foot in an OR nor does he belong to or present at the World Molecular Imaging Society meetings. Tis technology has been under development for over ten years and Dr. Low has played no role whatsoever in it's development. Furthermore, his folate agen will not be used for ovarian cancer due to possible nephretotoxicity. Drs Van Dam and Ntzichristos are working With an alternative. I encourage you to speak with them.