Armed with this information, "we can turn cancer into a chronic manageable disease," says Dr. Satchi-Fainaro. Her innovative drug delivery system delivers compounds like Taxol known to stop blood vessel growth to cancerous tumors. She bound existing cancer drugs to an inert polymer that doesn't react with the immune system. "Like a stealth airplane," she says, the polymer passes through the body's defense system unnoticed. Then, programmed to find the tumor using the bisphosphonate drug Alendronate, a drug that binds to bones, the carrier delivers its cancer-killing payload.

In animal models, Dr. Satchi-Fainaro found that she was able to reverse the growth of bone cancer tumors. In a second study, she found that loading her polymer with the anti-cancer drug Taxol could inhibit tumor growth by 50%, compared to a Taxol dose that had no effect on tumor growth at all.

Water-soluble and inert, the carrier was found to leak from the blood only at the tumor site. Regular drug formulations diffuse through the whole body, attacking both normal and diseased organs. This makes Dr. Satchi-Fainaro's formulation more effective at targeting tumors. Her new drug also has applications in other diseases involving dysfunctional blood vessel growth, such as diabetes and arthritis.

Source: American Friends of Tel Aviv University