Radioactive scorpion venom deemed safe cancer treatment

July 19, 2006

June 26, 2006

Special to World Science

Scientists say they have helped establish the safety of a bizarre new

treatment for an aggressive, essentially incurable cancer called high-grade

brain glioma. More than 17,000 cases are diagnosed in the United States

every year.

The treatment is based on findings that the venom in the yellow Israeli

scorpion contains a molecule that attaches itself selectively to the tumor

cells.

Health physicists in a study used a compound called TM-601, a synthetic

version of the molecule. The molecule, a protein, was bound to a radioactive

substance called I-131 believed to kill glioma cells. When injected into the

blood, if things work as hoped, the radioactive venom protein travels to the

brain and attaches to the glioma cells, and the I-131 releases radiation

that kills them.

Alan M. Jackson of the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, Mich. is slated

to discuss the findings on June 28 at the annual meeting of the Health

Physics Society in Providence, R.I. Jackson said he and his colleagues have

established safe procedures for the therapy in trials with three human

patients at Henry Ford who received a weekly dose.

Patients could safely return home several hours after the procedure,

according to Jackson, and their families would be exposed to no more

radiation than is typical with a thyroid cancer patient going home after

treatment. Patients showed no evidence of adverse reactions, Jackson reports

adding that 54 patients nationwide are currently in investigational trials

for the therapy.

The drug’s developer, Cambridge, Mass.-based TransMolecular Inc., reported

in 2004 that a study involving 18 patients, the drug treatment was

associated with an increase in survival time from a median of 4.6 to 6.3

months. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2003 gave the drug “Fast

Track” status, according to TransMolecular. This means the agency would

expedite review of the therapy in light of a significant unmet need for

glioma treatment.

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