Chemotherapy is a mainstay of cancer treatments, but its effectiveness can vary dramatically. Deciding whether or not to pursue chemotherapy could be based on how well certain drugs work for individual patients, but it can take over a month to determine if tumor cells are dying in response to treatment. As chemotherapy has toxic side effects, better prediction methods can save patients from unnecessary health problems. More timely detection of tumor response can also prevent patients from undergoing treatments that are ineffective.
Research presented in the February issues of Radiology and Cancer Research reveals new techniques for determining chemotherapy’s effects on tumors. In Radiology, Ravi Bellamkonda, a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, and his colleagues determined the leakiness of tumors to predict how well drugs would enter and kill cells. In Cancer Research, Adam Wax led Duke University bioengineers who have developed a light scattering technique that gauges tumor cell death in just three hours.
Bekijk het gehele bericht
