Nanocells designed in Australia used for mesothelioma treatment

Australian researchers have successfully used nanocells, designed in the country, to almost completely cure a patient of mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer, local media reported Monday.

“A nanocell is a delivery vehicle; you can package basically anything in there that you like, so a chemotherapy drug or in our case a minigene and then it’s injected into the body,” Glen Reid from the Asbestos Diseases Research Institute told the ABC news channel.

The nanocells were used as Trojan Horses to carry very small genes known as microRNA to inhibit tumor growth in Bradley Selmon, one of the ten people taking part in clinical trials of the new method, in Chris O’Brien Lifehouse Centre.

Selmon was suffering from mesothelioma in his right lung as a result of exposure to asbestos dust from his time as an apprentice plumber.

“He had this quite amazing response where a lot of his cancer cannot be seen on his scan,” Selman’s oncologist Dr Steven Kao said.

Selmon, however, was the only patient who responded successfully to the treatment.

The condition of the other nine have either remained stable or continued to decline, ABC said.

Some 600 people, mostly men, are diagnosed with mesothelioma every year.

The median survival after detection is 12 months.