Breakthrough in the Search for a Cure for Cancer

New Molecule Keeps Cancer Cells from Growing and Re-programs them to be Normal Non-cancerous Cells

An amazing breakthrough in the race to find a cure for cancer has been made by researchers at Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. The researchers headed by Prof. Varda Shoshan-Barmatz of the Department of Life Sciences and the National Institute for Biotechnology in the Negev Ltd. (NIBN) have developed a new molecule called the siRNA that keeps cancer cells from growing and also re-programs them so that they return to being normal non-cancerous cells.

The Molecule only Attacked Cancer Cells and Left Normal Cells Alone

The study was carried out on in vitro in the lab and on the mice for brain, breast and lung cancer.On tests on mice the siRNA stopped cancer cells from growing and also their tumors shrank. The treatment only stopped the growth of cancerous cells and left normal cells untouched, which could be a safe way of treating cancer.

New Treatment Inhibits the Production of a Protein

This new treatment is based on inhibiting the production of a protein, the voltage-dependent anion-selective channel 1 (VDAC1). Many solid and non-solid tumors contain highly increased levels of 1 (VDAC1).

Study to be Published after Molecule is Patented

BGN Technologies is now proceeding to patent the siRNA molecule and after that the researchers will publish their study. After that they will need to test it in clinical trials and are currently searching for partners to help in advancing the research.

Cancer

• Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States according to statistics from the CDC in 2013. National costs of cancer in 2010 was 157 billion dollars. The projected cost for cancer in 2020 in 174 billion dollars.
• It is not easily curable, but can go into remission after very expensive and aggressive treatment, but often returns within the five period after treatment. Only when someone passes the five-year mark without a remission is it thought to have been cured. Even so it sometimes returns later in a different part of the body.
• Although infants can have cancer, aging is a major risk factor for cancer and the older one is then the greater the chance is to contract it.
• It is estimated that in 2018, an estimated 1,735,350 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in the United States and 609,640 people will die from the disease.
• There were an estimated 15.5 million cancer survivors in the United States in 2016. The number of cancer survivors is expected to increase to 20.3 million by 2026.
• Approximately 38.4% of men and women will be diagnosed with cancer at some point during their lifetimes (based on 2013–2015 data).
• An estimated 15,270 children and adolescents ages 0 to 19 were diagnosed with cancer and 1,790 died of the disease in 2017.
• Cancer is among the leading causes of death worldwide. In 2012, there were 14.1 million new cases and 8.2 million cancer-related deaths worldwide..
• The number of new cancer cases per year is expected to rise to 23.6 million by 2030.

The most common cancers (listed in descending order according to estimated new cases in 2018) are:

• breast cancer,
• lung and bronchus cancer,
• prostate cancer,
• colon and rectum cancer,
• melanoma of the skin,
• bladder cancer,
• non-Hodgkin lymphoma,
• kidney and renal pelvis cancer,
• endometrial cancer,
• leukemia,
• pancreatic cancer,
• thyroid cancer,
• liver cancer.

 

Conclusion

Let us hope that this new research will finally bring an end to this terrible disease, which causes so much widespread human suffering.