Killing Cancer Without Side-Effects

At this point, the main drawback of cancer treatments is that they cause a wide array of negative side-effects, which are often just as worse as the disease. But now, a biotechnology company from Norway announces that its experts are getting closer to developing a side-effect-free cancer therapy.

Achieving this goal would significantly improve the quality of life of millions of cancer patients, doctors say. Not having to live in the constant pain and sickness caused by chemotherapy, not losing their nails and hair, would mean a lot for people already plagued with various types of cancers.

According to representatives from the Norwegian biotech company PCI Biotech Holding ASA (PCI Biotech), the new approach would kill cancer cells almost exclusively, reducing the rate at which healthy cells are also affected to a negligible level.

Developing a drug – or drug cocktail – that is extremely selective in the way it identifies, attacks and kills cells is not easy at all. The majority of substances used during chemotherapy were designed with this in mind, and yet they have such severe side-effects.

PCI Biotech is working towards using light for treating cancer. The main technology currently under research at the company is called photochemical internalization (PCI), hence the name of the company.

Their project, called “photochemical internalization of chemotherapy” in English, has been under development since 2000, and the work is now nearing a conclusion. The Research Council of Norway has been sponsoring the work for years, Science Daily reports. 

PCI works in a very complex manner. At first, a patented molecule called Amphinex® is administered to the patient, and let to flow through the bloodstream for a few days. Doctors then allow patients to take their usual chemotherapy medication.

Amphinex® is a photosensitizing compound that increases the sensitivity of cancer cells to light. Chief Scientific Officer Anders Høgset explains that a red laser operating at a specific wavelength is used on cancer cells shortly after the drugs were ingested.

“After a short while, we shine the laser on the tumor where both Amphinex® and the medication are now present. When light is applied, Amphinex® triggers processes within the cancer cells, substantially enhancing the effect of the drug,” the team leader explains.

“Now we have finally succeeded in finding a way to deliver cancer medications inside the malignant cells, destroying them effectively. In the laboratory, we have managed to enhance the effect of some cytotoxic drugs by a full 50 times!” Dr. Høgset concludes.