Cancer in the news: Medical and Scientific: Cells kept alive to plot their demise

Medical and Scientific: Cells kept alive to plot their demise

Researchers have been able to grow pancreatic tumour cells in a petri dish and keep them alive for almost two weeks in a groundbreaking development that has enabled scientists to develop promising new therapies for pancreatic cancer. By growing a pancreatic cancer tumour and keeping it alive in the laboratory for 12 days, University of NSW scientist Phoebe Phillips and her team were able to test a key drug and a nanomedicine gene therapy to see whether it inhibited the tumour's growth.

The drug Professor Phillips tested, sulfasalazine, is used for arthritis but was found to be effective in inhibiting the growth of the tumours grown in the petri dish. Professor Phillips is now testing sulfasalazine on pancreatic cancer patients in the hope it could be repurposed to treat the deadly cancer.

The Weekend Australian; 29/05/2021; Page 9