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This week on Healthwatch, we've been talking cancer - how to prevent it, detect it and fight it. One problem with a lot of current cancer treatments is that they can damage healthy cells along with cancer cells. Researchers are working on treatments that target only the tumors themselves. Doctors at UT Southwestern Medical Center have shown that an antibody combined with a cancer drug is effective for cutting off the blood supply to breast cancer tumors.
The antibody helps target the drug directly to the blood vessels feeding tumors. That allows the tumor to be attacked without affecting surrounding tissue, and it means lower drug doses can be used because they don't have to penetrate the surface of the tumor itself.
Dr. Philip Thorpe, a UT Southwestern pharmacologist, says it's possible this approach could also work with other cancer drugs with different kinds of cancer.
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July 2005
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