UAB, Areva Med Collaborate In Groundbreaking Cancer Trial

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UAB, Areva Med Collaborate In Groundbreaking Cancer Trial.

The Birmingham News (5/11, Hansen) writes about a "groundbreaking trial" involving "human drug trial of lead-212 to treat cancer." Areva Med, a unit of French nuclear giant Areva, is the "maker of the lead-212 and sponsor of the Phase I trial" at UAB Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama. The medically pure radium-224 is isolated in Bessines-sur-Gartempe in France, and flown to the US. The radium breaks down into six radioactive elements, especially lead-212, which is used in the treatment, the paper says. Unlike traditional chemotherapy, this novel treatment uses two key processes to fight cancer. One is that lead-212 is linked "with a small monoclonal antibody called trastuzumab," which acts like "a guided missile" and brings lead-212 to the cancerous cells, the article notes. The other key element is that as it decays, lead-212 emits powerful radiation in the form of an alpha particle, killing the targeted cancerous cells, the article adds.

        WAFF-TV Huntsville, AL (5/10, Shuttleworth) reported "the radio immunotherapy uses the radioactive isotope to fight cancers like pancreatic, ovarian, colon, gastric, endometrial and other which have spread to the abdomen." WAFF said the "method is less susceptible to resistance than chemotherapy."

UAB teams up with French company in a groundbreaking trial

http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2012/05/uab_teams_up_with_french_compa.html