New Treatment Selectively Kills Cancer Cells

Korean researchers have developed a new cancer treatment that induces cancer cell to die by themselves.

Professor Shin Deuk-yong (47) of the Dankook University College of Medicine said on June 21 that his research team found that “PTX-2” separated from poriferan living in the South Sea selectively kills cancer cells that do not contain the “p53” gene that serves to restrain cancer.

The study results budgeted by the Ministry of Science and Technology’s program to support government-appointed laboratories was recently published in “Oncogene”, a renowned medical magazine regarding cancer genes. “P53” is a gene that restrains the outbreak of cancer, and without it, normal cells turn into cancer cells. About 60 percent of cancer patients don’t have the “p53” gene.

The research team injected “PTX-2,” which blocks the formation of cytoskeleton, into mice, and confirmed that cancer cells that don’t have “p53” die by themselves without any influence on normal cells.

cosmos@donga.com