CANCER | 2020s
A compound that could help combat cancer
Our cancer research has discovered a fast new way to assess the efficacy of cancer treatment could prolong lives
The Centenary Institute was originally founded as The Centenary Institute of Cancer Medicine and Cell Biology, with the fundamental belief that to understand the abnormalities responsible for disease, the biology of normal tissues and cells must be studied first.
Today, the Centre for Cancer Innovations is focused on enhancing the quality of life for cancer patients, employing innovative approaches to decipher the complex genetic and cellular mechanisms underlying various cancer types.
Assessing treatment efficacy
In an exciting development, the Hogg laboratory at the Centre for Cancer Innovations has developed a new compound that assesses the effectiveness of cancer therapies.
It holds the potential to open up the window of opportunity to change treatment options, switching patients to a more effective treatment and prolonging their life.
“Currently it takes around 6-12 weeks to see if a patient is responding to their cancer treatment,” says Professor Philip Hogg. “This is too long to wait while the patient’s condition is deteriorating.”
“The new compound – a radiopharmaceutical called 68Ga-CDI – may allow assessment in the first two weeks of treatment, enabling clinicians to see whether a patient is responding to their therapy by measuring changes in the amounts of cell death in the tumour.”
PET radiopharmaceuticals are low-dose radioactive therapies that can be designed to collect in a tumour and visualised using a PET scan. 68Ga-CDI is rapidly taken up by dead or dying cells, prevalent in cancers, allowing imaging of a tumour and the effect of therapy.
This groundbreaking ability to clinically image cell death may allow a more accurate and rapid assessment than current approaches that rely on tumour size and FDG-PET.
“FDG-PET measures cell activity and is taken up by healthy cells in the body, including the brain and heart, and its uptake in tumours doesn’t necessarily correlate with cancer progression,” says Phil.
“What makes Ga68-CDI different to FDG PET is its selective uptake by the tumour and direct correlation to the effect of cancer therapy.”
This innovative discovery holds great promise for a number of cancers, with the Centre currently focusing on gastrointestinal cancers, breast cancer and lymphomas thanks to generous support from Cancer Institute NSW.
It could prove to be life-changing, if not life-saving for millions of people.