Firm Tests New Cancer Treatment With Reduced Side-Effects

A HEALTHCARE group yesterday unveiled plans to test a new chemotherapy treatment for cancer that it claims could markedly reduce unwanted side-effects such as nausea and hair-loss.

Ark Therapeutics has developed Scavidin, a version of a naturally occurring molecule called avidin, which recognises the cancer- fighting drug used in radiotherapy and chemotherapy and then “shuttles” it back and forth in the body, picking up the cancer drugs and taking them to the heart of the tumour.

The Anglo-Finnish firm said it meant that tumour development could be halted by using just one tenth of the conventional chemotherapy dose.

Ark said initial laboratory tests showed the treatment eliminated tumour growth in seven to 10 days, while non-treated tumours grew three to five times the size in the same period. No side-effects were observed. Chief executive officer Nigel Parker said the potential market for the gene-based technology was “very large”.