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Ovarian cancer testing leads to new treatment technique

Category: Ovarian

Researchers are encouraged by medical developments which suggest that metastatic ovarian cancer could be treated by a radioactive substance, according to a new study.

Researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg and Sahlgrenska University Hospital have determined in their preliminary ovarian cancer testing that a type of radioactive isotope is capable of locating and destroying tumor cells without any significant side-effects.

The proposed treatment would entail injecting the isotope directly into the abdominal cavity so that it may bind itself to the surface of cancer cells and emit alpha particles at ranges so short only the nearby cancer cell would be destroyed.

The goal of the research, recently published in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine, was to study the radioactive isotope's distribution in the body and determine if any side-effects would occur in nine women with ovarian cancer.

Ragnar Hultborn, professor of oncology at the University of Gothenburg commented that given this type of radioactive treatment, mice with ovarian cancer "are generally cured without serious side-effects, so we hope that this will become an established and effective treatment for women."

While the research team has already planned a complete study of this treatment in 80 women with ovarian cancer, Hultborn says developing the treatment will take several more years.