Medical News Today, in its July 17, 2012 article, reports that New Platinum Drug Kills Cancer Cells Better.
Extract :
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Researchers at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US who are testing phenanthriplatin, a new experimental drug based on
platinum, say it kills cancer cells better and may provide a more effective
alternative to cisplatin, the most commonly used approved platinum chemotherapy
drug.
Platinum-based chemotherapy drugs are among the most powerful and widely used
against cancer. However, they have toxic side effects, and tumors can become
resistant to them.
Cisplatin, the most common platinum chemotherapy
drug, was first approved in the US in 1978. It is particularly effective
against testicular cancer, and is also used in the treatment of ovarian and
some lung cancers, as well as lymphoma
and other cancers.
In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences (PNAS), senior author Stephen J Lippard
and colleagues suggest phenanthriplatin not only
kills cancer cells better than cisplatin, but it
may also evade cancer-cell resistance to conventional platinum-based drugs.
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