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The Sunday TimesWA cancer cure saves 8 in trialsBy CATHERINE...

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    The Sunday Times

    WA cancer cure saves 8 in trials
    By CATHERINE MADDEN
    27feb05

    A PERTH company is using engineering at the scale of atoms and molecules to create a world-first "magic bullet" that kills cancerous tumours.

    Biotech firm pSivida is using nanotechnology to impregnate silicon with minute pores – just 10 atoms wide – that deliver radiation directly into the tumour without affecting surrounding cells.

    Doctors at Singapore General Hospital announced this week that all eight patients on a clinical trial of the pSivida's therapy BrachySil saw their tumours shrink by 80-100 per cent.

    The patients had advanced liver cancer that was deemed inoperable.

    Supervising surgeon Pierce Chow said: "We are extremely pleased with the results so far. It has been a pleasant surprise because we didn't expect them to be so good.

    "These patients no longer had other therapies available to them because their cancers were too advanced and they were in such a poor physical state.

    "Essentially, we, and the patients, are very happy with what we are seeing."


    Liver cancer is one of the hardest cancers to treat because the drugs and radiation needed often destroy the liver.


    The product at the heart of BrachySil is BioSilicon. It is a form of silicon engineered at the atomic, or nano, level – less than one one-hundred-thousandth the width of a human hair – to give it a honeycomb of pores.

    The pores can be impregnated with drugs, proteins, vaccines or, as in the Singapore trial, radioisotopes.


    The medical rights to BioSilicon, which was discovered by British Defence Ministry scientists in the 1990s, were bought by Perth-born investment banker Gavin Rezos.

    PSivida is the only WA company listed on the Nasdaq, the US stockmarket for technology shares.

    Mr Rezos said: "You can nano-structure silicon to make it more than 90 per cent full of air.

    "This increases the surface area dramatically, so a 10cm-square wafer effectively becomes the same size as a soccer field. That's why it dissolves in the body."

    The isotope-laden silicon is injected into the tumour through a fine needle. The treatment takes about 30 minutes.

    The radiation is delivered gradually as the silicon breaks down into silicic acid, a harmless substance occurring naturally in many foods.

    BrachySil will be used in a larger trial of about 35 patients in the UK and US, this time targeting pancreatic cancer.

    It is expected to be licensed in 2007 and
    could be used to treat other solid tumours, including breast and lung cancer.
 
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