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Israeli Scientists Develop Oral Treatment for Stomach Cancer

The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology has developed a potential nanomedicine treatment for stomach cancer, using a combination of anti-cancer drugs and a chemo-resistance reversal agent that eliminates gastric tumors’ resistance to chemotherapy drugs.

The treatment could be self-administered at home by the patient—eliminating the need for hospitalization, which is dangerous for immunocompromised cancer patients due to the risk of contracting drug-resistant pathogens in hospitals.

Their study proving the effectiveness of this regimen was published in the journal Oncotarget earlier this year.

The unique transport platform packages the drugs in beta-casein. Caseins are the main proteins found in milk, in structures called micelles. The natural role of casein micelles is the transfer of calcium, phosphorus, and protein from mother to baby through breast milk. Beta-casein’s spatial structure allows it to encapsulate substances that are not water-soluble.

Since this platform effectively carries the drug to the stomach and releases it there for easy digestion, the researchers believe that it will be particularly effective when used by patients suffering from gastric diseases and gastric cancer in particular—one of the most aggressive and deadly types of cancer.

Following a series of successful laboratory experiments that proved the system’s effectiveness against drug-resistant human gastric cancer cells, the research group will next experiment on lab animals. Their expectation is that the nanometric platform will achieve a dramatic improvement in the treatment of stomach cancer, including in cells that have developed resistance to a broad spectrum of anti-cancer drugs.

(via Israel21c)

[Photo: Israel21c ]