In Mice, a Potential New Treatment Eradicates Ovarian and Colorectal Cancer In Days

An experimental new type of cancer treatment has yielded some impressive results in mice: the eradication of advanced-stage ovarian and colorectal cancer in the animals as little as six days. ScienceAlert reports: The new therapy has only been tested in mice so far, so let's not get too excited just yet. However, the early signs are promising, and human clinical trials could be underway by the end of the year. The treatment involves tiny 'drug factory' beads that are implanted into the body and deliver a continuous, high dose of interleukin-2 (IL2) -- a natural compound that enlists white blood cells in the fight against cancer. "We just administer once, but the drug factories keep making the dose every day, where it's needed until the cancer is eliminated," says bioengineer Omid Veiseh from Rice University in Texas. "Once we determined the correct dose -- how many factories we needed -- we were able to eradicate tumors in 100 percent of animals with ovarian cancer and in seven of eight animals with colorectal cancer." The research has been published in the journal Science Advances.

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