Scientists at a leading US hospital have developed a “cancer-killing pill” that kills solid tumours through “targeted chemotherapy.”
Likened to a “snowstorm that closes a key airline hub, shutting down all flights in and out only in planes carrying cancer cells”, the protein was developed by a research team at the City of Hope, one of the largest cancer research and treatment organisations in the US.
The AOH1996 molecule works by targeting a cancerous variant of PCNA, a protein critical to DNA replication and repair of enlarging tumours.
Developed over the last two decades, it has shown to be effective in preclinical research treating breast, prostate, brain, ovarian, cervical, skin and lung cancers.
The study, published in the journal Cell Chemical Biology, tested the protein across over 70 cancer cell lines. The results noted that AOH1996 selectively killed cancer cells by “disrupting the normal cell reproductive cycle”, with the next stage aiming to further the clinical trial in humans. A stage 1 trial is being run at City of Hope.