A breakthrough is once again discovered for the benefit of those with prostate cancer. A new treatment involving a drug created from a bacteria that can be found under the deep ocean is now ready to make transformative changes to prostate cancer sufferer's lives.
A conducted trial on 413 patients with low-risk prostate cancer treated from 47 different hospitals across Europe revealed that around 49% of those who underwent the treatment showed a complete remission leaving no trace of cancer post-trial. It left only 6% of the treated patients to undertake a prostate removal procedure as opposed to the 13.5% who were not treated as reported by The Telegraph.
According to WebMd, the treatment works by injecting a light sensitive drug into the bloodstream with means of activating it with a drug to destroy the tumour tissue without harming the healthy ones. A total of ten fiber optic lasers are to be inserted into the prostate, as it is turned on, the lasers will start to kill the cancer tissues.
The drug is derived from a bacteria that dwells in total darkness on the ocean floor. They only become toxic once exposed to light. The drug is called WST11. The said therapy was created and developed by the scientists at Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel in cooperation with STEBA Biotech and the European phase I, II and III.
"In 1975 almost everyone with breast cancer was given a radical mastectomy, but since then treatments have steadily improved and we now rarely need to remove the whole breast. In prostate cancer we are still commonly removing or irradiating the whole prostate, so the success of this new tissue-preserving treatment is welcome news indeed," Professor Mark Emberton, Dean of UCL Medical Sciences and Consultant Urologist at UCLH said.
It is known that with radical therapy, long-term side effects are present. It involves lifelong erectile problems and incontinence. On the other hand, the light therapy causes short-term urinary and erectile problems that are fortunately solved after three months and not seen after two years.
