Researchers find a way to kill cancer cells: report

PanARMENIAN.Net - South Korean researchers have developed a synthetic nanomaterial that can kill cancer cells, The Korea Bizwire says.

A joint research team comprising professors from Yonsei University College of Medicine and Ewha Womans University said on Monday that it has discovered a new ‘cancer cell-killing’ synthetic nanomaterial combining zinc phthalocyanine inducers (ZnPcS8) and anticancer drug Mitoxantron.

The research team discovered the effect of the new synthetic nanomaterial after an experiment with lab rats during which around 80 percent of breast cancer cells were killed.

Cancer patients who are not able to receive surgical operations, or who have cancer cells remaining even after surgery, often receive radiation treatment.

However, tumor hypoxia, a condition where tumor cells are deprived of oxygen, makes it difficult to treat cancer completely, leaving room for recurrence.

Against this background, the research team focused on the fact that hypoxic tumor cells can withstand radiation treatment up to 100 times stronger than regular cells, and have strong resistance to anti-cancer drugs.

The researchers believed that the injection of oxygen generating photosensitizers coupled with an anti-cancer substance could cause cancer cells to die out.

The study revealed that the groups which received either photosensitizers or anti-cancer substances exclusively saw their cancer cells grow by 400 percent, while another group on the receiving end of the ‘ZnPcs8 and Mitoxantron’ synthetic material saw over 80 percent of cancer cells killed.

The researchers are hopeful that the cancer fighting effect of the new nanomaterial could come in handy in the future.