New molecular ‘truck’ can deliver imaging or cancer-killing agents to tumors

A new class of imaging agents is taken
up readily by nearly all human cancers. 

– YouTube courtesy University of
Wisconsin

CANCER DIGEST – June 11, 2014 – Scientists at the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center (UWCCC) report that a new class of tumor-targeting agents can seek out and find dozens of solid tumors, including brain cancer stem cells that currently resist treatments. Cancer cells that lack the enzymes needed to absorb a certain cell membrane component, which is easily processed by normal cells, preferentially take up the agent, called alkylphosphocholine, or APC for short. Like a molecular truck, APC can be ‘loaded’ with either radioactive or chemical agents used to image tissues, or it can be loaded with a cancer-killing radioisotope. The results showed APC was taken up by 55 of 57 different cancers, in both animal and human subjects. The researchers reported their findings in today's issue of the journal ScienceTranslational Medicine.

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