America
Cancer treatment breakthrough by Indian American professor
New York, March 25
Queen's University cancer
researcher Madhuri Koti has discovered a biomarker that will help lead
to better predictions of the success of chemotherapy in ovarian cancer
patients.
Biomarkers are an indicator of a biological state or
condition, and the discovery could lead to better treatment options in
the fight against ovarian cancer, according to a press release from the
university.
"Recent successes in harnessing the immune system to
combat cancer are evidence for the significant roles of a cancer
patient's immune responses in fighting cancer," explains Indian American
professor Dr. Koti.
"Many of these successes are based on
boosting anti-cancer immunity via different therapies. Such therapies
would prove to be most effective when coupled with markers predicting a
patient's eventual response to a specific therapy".
Dr. Koti's
study, conducted on over 200 ovarian cancer patients, utilised a
combination of cutting-edge detection technologies for identifying such
markers.
A major impact of this discovery is that these novel
markers, when used at the time of treatment initiation in the specific
type of ovarian cancer patient, will help oncologists make decisions on
additional treatment needed in these patients, thus increasing their
potential for survival.
Ovarian cancer leads to approximately
152,000 deaths among women worldwide each year, making it a leading
cause of gynaecological cancer related deaths in women.