Combined treatment kills tumours

US researchers have found that a new type of cancer treatment, tested in mice, can completely destroy colon and rectal tumours in a single dose.

In the study by the University of Rhode Island (URI) and Yale University, scientists discovered that combining an immunotherapy drug with a molecule (pHLIP) could eradicate colorectal tumours in mice.

Immunotherapy is a revolutionary cancer treatment, approved more than a decade ago, that uses the immune system to attack cancer cells.

As pHLIP targets acidity - and the environment around tumours is highly acidic - the treatment directly seeks out the cancer cells and boosts the immune response against the tumours.

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