Researchers at Ohio State University have figured out a way to use a firefly gene to let them see just how effective a new drug combination actually is against some forms of cancer and its serious complication.
The new study looked at ATLL, adult T-cell lymphoma and leukemia, a form of cancer where it is particularly hard to gauge the disease’s progress, and where the patients’ prognosis is generally poor. There is now no widely effective therapy available to treat this disease successfully.
In doing so, the researchers developed what they hope will be the first animal model for the disease that includes a severe bone depletion called humoral hypercalcemia of malignancy (HHM), a condition that can affect four out of every five ATLL patients and shorten their lives. The study is published in the online edition of the journal Cancer Research.
Release date: December 19, 2007
Source: Ohio State University
Filed Under: Drug Discovery
