Eoganacht wrote: Quotes from Dr. McFarland:
“TLD-1433 is extremely effective at killing cancer cells and is orders of magnitude better than similar compounds designed to achieve the same results,” McFarland said. “In general, these types of photosensitizers are oxygen-dependent. While TLD-1433 is very powerful when oxygen is present, it can also destroy certain types of cancer cells in hypoxic environments where oxygen is lacking.”
“The fact that some of the most aggressive and drug-resistant tumors are hypoxic is a challenge for cancer therapy in general as well as PDT,” she said. “If we can discover an alternate mechanism that persists even in low-oxygen environments, that would mean these agents could be used to treat hypoxic tumors and allow health care providers to apply light-based therapy to the most difficult-to-treat tumors.”
“The study enrolls patients who have failed standard therapies. They would have already had immunotherapy and multiple surgeries, but their cancer persists,” McFarland said. “The recommendation at that point is removal of the bladder. That is what they are facing.”
“One area of focus now is to gain an understanding of why TLD-1433 works so well. Then, we can design even better light-activated drugs in the future,” she said. “If we can make a photodrug that is potent and selective, providers can dose at much lower levels, making the medicine both safer and cheaper to produce. More importantly, at lower doses, we could minimize side effects for the patients.”
“A lot of people don’t know that there are alternative treatments like these light-based therapies. Even your typical oncologist may not know about PDT,” McFarland said. “When we think of cancer treatment, we think of chemotherapy, radiation, immunotherapy and surgery. But if you have a tricky form of cancer, there are a number of emerging alternative therapies available.”