20
Dec 2019
World-first cancer treatment enables chemotherapy to be ‘more effective by using bubbles to help kill tumours’
NHS hospitals are commencing trials into a pioneering way of delivering chemotherapy in an attempt to make the cancer treatment more effective.
The treatment involves using miniscule bubbles to get more drugs inside tumours without having to damage healthy cells, which is a current side effective of chemotherapy.
The treatment, known as acoustic cluster therapy, sees these microscopic bubbles directly injected into the site of the tumour, using ultrasound to create high-frequency waves to increase the size of the bubbles and stretch the walls of the tumour.
This enables the medication to have a larger target to aim for, significantly increasing the amount of drugs which reach the cancer cells.
Oncologists say that in theory, the treatment has the potential to increase the potency of the treatment and lead to fewer side effects.
Jeffrey Bamber who helped to develop and evaluate the technology at The Institute of Cancer Research, who are heading up the trial, said “It’s a very exciting “door opening” technology which concentrates more of the drug in the tumour.
“We expect eventually to be able to both treat tumours more effectively and reduce the rate and severity of side effects.
“In the long term, we hope this technology will be of particular benefit in difficult-to-treat tumours, such as those of the pancreas. It may also assist new types of treatments such as immunotherapy.”
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Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.
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