(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A synthetic version of a protein found in the venom of the Giant Yellow Israeli scorpion may one day offer real hope to patients suffering from a deadly form of brain cancer.

Researchers at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles tested the ability of the protein, known as TM-601, to cross the blood-brain barrier, carrying with it radioactive iodine to kill the cells involved in glioma brain cancers. The synthetic scorpion protein was selected because of its exceptional ability to bind to the glioma cells.

The investigation was carried out in 18 patients who had already undergone surgery to have their brain tumors removed. Unfortunately, some cancer cells are always left behind, and they generally re-grow quickly and aggressively, making it difficult to effectively treat the disease.

While noting the study was conducted only to test the safety of the treatment (another study is underway now to determine the most effective doses), the authors were heartened by the initial results. Two out of the 18 patients involved in the research, both women, showed no evidence of the cancer on magnetic resonance imaging scans (MRIs) following the treatment. Both women were still alive nearly three years after the study.

"Despite advances in surgical technology, radiation therapy and cancer-killing drugs, length of survival has remained virtually unchanged for patients with gliomas," reports study author Keith L. Black, M.D. "Only in the recent past have we begun to discover some of the molecular, genetic and immunologic mechanisms that enable these deadly cancer cells to evade or defy our treatments, and we are developing innovative approaches, such as this one, that capitalize on these revelations."

Glioma brain cancers affect some 17,000 Americans every year. Survival rates are low, with only 8 percent of patients living two years following diagnosis, and just 3 percent surviving five years.


SOURCE: The Lancet, 2006;368-378