Aus breakthrough for cancer patients
An Australian scientist has created a test that could shorten chemotherapy courses and extend cancer patients’ lives by determining the progress of their treatments.
Professor Philip Hogg, from the University of New South Wales (UNSW), has developed a dye that latches onto dead or dying cells and reveals whether treatments are working just days into the course. The innovation could dramatically shorten the length of time that patients spend on a course of chemotherapy.
The dye has already been sold to a US pharmaceutical company at an undisclosed price but it is estimated to be worth tens of millions of dollars.
Scientists hope the dye will be available for clinical trials in cancer patients in Australia. If the tests go well, it will be around five years before it is widely available.
