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An Australian scientist has developed a test that detects within days whether chemotherapy is actually killing a patient's cancer cells, allowing doctors to prescribe alternative, less debilitating treatment earlier.
The test involves the injection of a molecular dye, which attaches to dying or dead cancer cells within 24 to 48 hours of the patient's first dose of chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
Currently a cancer patient must undergo a full chemotherapy course, which can take months and also kills off healthy cells, before a doctor can determine whether a tumour has been reduced.
"If the cancer drugs are working, you'll find that the tumour has taken up a lot of this dye," said Philip Hogg, director of the University of New South Wales' Cancer Research Centre. "If it's not working, it won't take up much of this dye at all."
Hogg said the dye test worked on all solid tumours such as lung, breast, colon and prostate cancers. He said clinical trials would begin next year and hoped the test would be available within five years.
- Reuters
