Supercharged chemo: Killing cancer 20 times faster

Australian researchers are celebrating a major cancer breakthrough, which could make treatments faster, more effective, and less painful.

A new drug called Anisina is expected to kill cancer cells 20 times faster than existing medications, reducing chemotherapy treatment times, and side effects for patients.

Researchers say they are confident Anisina will work on almost all cancers.

University of New South Wales oncologist Peter Gunning has spent decades working on his theory of attacking the skeleton of cancer cells.

Now it appears his dedication has paid off.

“This is my wildest hope that we could achieve something on this scale,” Professor Gunning said.

Anisina was developed to work on its own but researchers found it also worked to make the most widely used chemotherapy and anti-cancer drugs more effective.

Traditionally many cancer treatments have targeted cancer cell architecture, however, they have only been partially successful in destroying the structures.

“This new drug has been specifically designed to target the bit the other drugs cannot,” Professor Gunning said.

“Think about a cancer cell as a building - if you take away the scaffolding the entire building collapses.

“We're doing exactly that to the cancer cell."

Researchers have tested Anisina on mice with aggressive neuroblastoma cancer cells, and are now confident it can treat most forms of cancer and leukaemia, without damaging the rest of the body.

By targeting cancer cells in isolation it could mean less chemotherapy and fewer side effects, especially for children.

Novogen researchers, Graham Kelly and Justine Stehn, said the drug represented a major advance.

“We see it eventually being used as a companion drug to what are the most commonly used drugs in cancer now,” Professor Kelly said.

Dr Stehn said Anisina represented a true “wow” moment.

“…[We] weren't expecting it to work quite so well, it actually blew our socks off to be honest,” she said.

Human trials are expected to begin next year but it could be as long as three years before Anisina hits the market.