Light is a "promising" tool in the fight against cancer, say researchers in the US.

A study, published in Nature Medicine, showed how a drug could be created which sticks to tumours, but is then only activated when hit by specific waves of light.

It means a treatment can be highly targeted and not damage the surrounding tissue.

A cancer charity said the treatment showed early promise.

Currently, treatments for cancer can be separated into three categories: blasting it with radiation, surgically removing a tumour or using drugs to kill the cancerous cells. All have side effects and scientists are trying to come up with more precise therapies.

In this study, researchers at the National Cancer Institute, Maryland, used an antibody which targets proteins on the surface of cancerous cells.

They then attached a chemical, IR700, to the antibody. IR700 is activated when it is hit by near infrared light. This wavelength of light can penetrate several centimetres into the skin.
Continue reading the main story
"Start Quote

This potential treatment has promise"

Laura McCallum Cancer Research UK

To test the antibody-chemical combination, researchers implanted tumours, squamous cell carcinoma, into the backs of mice. They were given the drug and exposed to near infrared light.
Shrinking tumour

The study said: "Tumour volume was significantly reduced... compared to untreated control mice and survival was significantly prolonged.

"This selective killing minimises damage to normal cells."

The authors said the combination was "a promising therapeutic and diagnostic agent for the treatment of cancer".

"Although we observed no toxicity in our experiments, clinical translation of this method will require formal toxicity studies," they added.

Dr Laura McCallum, Cancer Research UK's science communications officer, said the research was promising.

"Using antibodies or photodynamic therapy to specifically target cancer cells have both been successful for treating some cancers, so combining the two together is certainly an exciting plan.

"But it's important to remember that this work was done in mice, so it's much too early to tell if it will work in people with cancer.

"This potential treatment has promise as scientists - including our own - are also looking at using antibodies to deliver other knockout punches, such as radiation, directly to cancer cells."

Lifelong traumas sparked by natural disasters, housefires or the abuse or the death of a loved one may bring on irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a painful chronic condition.

IBS is marked by abdominal discomfort, bloating, constipation or diarrhoea, caused by changes in the nerves and muscles that control bowel sensation and movement.

IBS is 1.5 times more common in women than in men, more prevalent among people under 50 years, says Yuri Saito-Loftus, from Mayo Clinic, Rochester, who led the study, according to a Mayo statement.

Besides, general life traumas were more commonly reported than physical, emotional or sexual abuse. Of the 2,623 participants, patients reported more traumas over a lifetime than controls with traumas common before age 18 as well as after age 18.

"While stress has been linked to IBS, and childhood abuse has been reported to be present in up to 50 percent of patients with IBS, at a prevalence twice that of patients without IBS. Most studies of abuse have focused on sexual abuse with sparse detail and also have not looked at other forms of psychological trauma," said Saito-Loftus.

"This is the first study that looks at multiple forms of trauma, the timing of those traumas, and traumas in a family setting," he added.

Saito-Loftus said the results of this study indicate that patients with IBS experience or report traumas at a level higher than patients without IBS.

These findings were presented at the American College of Gastroenterology's (ACG) 76th Annual Scientific meeting in Washington, DC.

Scientists have now come up with a new material that teams up with the fiber in face masks, air conditioning and air cleaning filters to capture flu viruses before they can get into people's eyes, noses and mouths and cause infection.

Xuebing Li, Peixing Wu and colleagues explain that in an average year, influenza kills almost 300,000 people and sickens millions more worldwide.

The constant emergence of new strains of virus that shrug off vaccines and anti-influenza medications has led to an urgent need for new ways of battling this modern-day scourge.

So, the scientists sought a new approach, using a substance termed chitosan made from ground shrimp shells.

The scientists combined chitosan with substances that the flu virus attaches to in order to infect cells.

They found that this new version of chitosan ideal for attaching to fibers of face masks and air filters was highly effective in capturing flu virus.

The material could become an important addition to vaccinations, anti-influenza medications, and other measures in battling flu, they suggest.

The report has been published in ACS' journal Biomacromolecules.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is worried about Indians' high out-of-pocket (OOP) expenses to buy medicines.

WHO says, 3.2% Indians will fall below the poverty line because of high medical bills. About 70% of Indians spend their entire income on healthcare and purchasing drugs, WHO suggests.

Dr Kathleen A Holloway, regional adviser of WHO, said, "About 70% Indians are spending their out-of-pocket income on medicines and healthcare services in comparison to 30%-40% in other Asian countries like Sri Lanka, and are still suffering from infected diseases due to lack of best quality drugs and healthcare facilities."

She stressed the need for effective monitoring system in India, while expressing concern about the lack of Drugs and Therapeutics Committee (DTC) and Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee (PTC) in Indian hospitals. WHO has been urging for the setting of these panels for the past 10 years.

"These committees can play an effective role to provide patients more efficient and rational use of medicines," Dr Kathleen added.

The Planning Commission accepts that OOP to pay for healthcare costs is a growing problem in India. It says 39 million Indians are pushed to poverty because of ill health every year. Around 30% in rural India didn't go for any treatment for financial constraints in 2004. In urban areas, 20% of ailments were untreated for financial problems the same year, said a recent study in the Lancet.

About 47% and 31% of hospital admissions in rural and urban India, respectively, were financed by loans and sale of assets. States have cut down on spending to purchase drugs, adding to aam aadmi's woes.

Maharashtra spent 5.2% of its health expenditure last year on purchasing drugs as against 11.3% a decade ago. Rajasthan, Haryana, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh too followed suit during the same period.

Or, consider the case of Kerala. Even though the state spent the highest in India on drug procurement last year -12.5% on health expenditure - the figure is still far less than what it had in 2001 (17%). While, Tamil Nadu's expenses on buying medicines came down from 15.3% (2001) to 12.2% (2010).

The Planning Commission's high-power expert group on universal health coverage has recommended ensuring availability of free essential medicines by increasing public spending on drug procurement.

It says low public spending on drugs and non-availability of free medicines in government healthcare facilities are major factors discouraging people from accessing public sector health units.

"We estimate that an increase in the public procurement of medicines from around 0.1% to 0.5% of GDP would ensure universal access to essential drugs, greatly reduce the burden on private out-of-pocket expenditures and increase the financial protection for households," the report says.

It adds, "Public spending on drugs is extremely low, with huge variation between states and across districts within a state. Data from 2010-11 indicates that about 10%-12% of the health spending in the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala goes towards procuring drugs as against the 2%-3% spent on drugs by states like Jharkhand, Punjab and Rajasthan. While there has been a significant improvement in drug procurement in the state of Bihar as a result of increased allocation of NRHM funds, it is still spending a very little (Rs 8 per capita) on drugs."