A New Treatment For Ovarian Cancer

A partnership research study made by the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg and Sahlgrenska University Hospital discovered that women suffering from metastatic ovarian cancer can be treated with a revolutionary medicine. A radioactive substance with no harmful side-effects can be given to them in order to destroy the malign cells.

Leading the research team are: doctor Håkan Andersson, an oncologist from Sahlgrenska University Hospital and Ragnar Hultborn, professor at Sahlgrenska Academy and Lars Jacobsson, radiation physicist. The three hope to revolutionize the treatment against ovarian cancer. As they say: “There is a good chance of this treatment working, as the study indicates that a sufficient amount of the active substance reaches the tumor cells in the abdominal cavity without any measurable side-effects.”

The study was published in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine. Its primary purpose was to observe how the radioactive substance entered in contact with the human body and its distribution and side-effects. The research was carried out on nine women, all suffering from ovarian cancer.
The partnership of the two entities resulted in an innovative treatment for metastatic ovarian cancer. It consists of an injection with a radioactive isotope in the abdominal cavity. The substance attacks cancer cells. The isotope connects to the surface of the malign tissue and starts emitting alpha particles at a short range in order to counteract the DNA of the tumor cells and destroy them.

If in the past, treating ovarian cancer was done in such a way that left severe side-effects, the researchers hope that this innovative treatment will become in a few years available for patients suffering from ovarian cancer.

Oncologist Håkan Andersson wants to treat 80 women suffering from this type of cancer in their future research to further develop the cure. The injections with the radioactive isotope will be done as a complementary part of the traditional cancer treatment. In this way researchers hope to verify if this treatment has the same beneficial effects on human beings as it did in the animal experiments.

Coming to aid their research, the Swedish Research Council and the Swedish Cancer Society will give the research team a part of the fund they need in order to continue with their tests to treat ovarian cancer.