Oncology

Indian Doctors Innovate New Therapy for Cancer

The doctors have developed nano-molecule of carboplatin, for the first time in the world, which is 15 times more effective than normal dose

Lead researcher Dr Debraj Shome

In a revolutionary research, Indian researchers have modified existing cancer drug and made it almost 15 times more potent than the normal drug. This team has developed a 'nano' form of carboplatin, which is a common drug used to treat many forms of cancers. It is essentially useful in Retinoblastoma (RB) which is the most common primary intraocular malignancy in childhood with an incidence of 1 in 10,000 to 15,000 live births. Most of the patients are younger than three years.

Systemic chemotherapy coupled with appropriate focal therapy has become the current standard of care in the management of RB. However, systemic chemotherapy is associated with its own risks. The regimens currently used can cause transient neutropenia, anemia and thrombocytopenia that may require blood product transfusions, and organ toxicities including ear toxicity, kidney toxicity, and liver toxicity.

In a clinical trial done on rats, researchers have found that 75 per cent of the modified drug was able to target the cancerous cells as opposed to five per cent of the normal drug. Clinical trials have demonstrated the efficacy of intra-venous carboplatin therapy in the management of multiple paediatric cancers (neuroblastoma, Ewing sarcoma, Wills tumor) and adult cancers as well. For these reasons, carboplatin is included in treating many cancers. The rationale for using local (around the eye) carboplatin injections is to increase the intraocular concentration of carboplatin without incurring additional systemic toxicity from increasing intravenous dosages.

Said Dr Debraj Shome, Consultant Facial Plastic Surgeon and Head of the Researcher's team, Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad, "We hypothesised that reducing the size of the drug molecule may further increase concentration in the body. Hence, our group created a novel nano-molecule carboplatin and designed an experiment to compare the eye concentration of the carboplatin molecule currently commercially available and the new novel molecule of carboplatin prepared by us, following injection around the eye. We studied twenty-four rats which received the new nano-molecule injected around the eyes and a much higher concentration was found in the eye compared to the commercially available carboplatin molecule as well as carboplatin injected via the blood stream." This new molecule was created in collaboration with Dr Jayesh Bellare of IIT, Powai.

In this particular trial, the group prepared a novel molecule of nano-carboplatin. "To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time carboplatin has been made available in a nano form," he added. This revolutionary research has been published in the Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual sciences, possibly one of the known best eye research journal. The process of injecting the molecule as well as preparing the molecule has been submitted for patent approval, both in the US and in India. Said Dr Shome "This trial proves that the new molecule created by us has greater penetration (due to a smaller size and greater osmotic diffusion gradient) in to the body. This will revolutionise therapy of cancers in the world. We have already proven the efficacy of this new molecule against cancer cells. Now, we are starting patient trials in human patients with cancers. This multi-centric trial once again proves the excellence of Indian doctors and scientists."

EH News Bureau