France–Australia versus cancer

In the teatment of cancer, the challenge for physicians is to kill malignant cells without damaging the rest of the patient’s body.

International Team: (from left) Professor John Webb (Murdoch), Dr Anthony Loussouarn (INSERM), Dr Stuart Carr (ANSTO), Dr Harvey Turner (Fremantle Hospital).

    Many of the methods to date have caused debilitating side-effects on patients because of this difficulty.
    A joint French-Australian team, working under the France-Australia Industrial Research scheme, and carrying out research at Murdoch University and Fremantle Hospital, thinks it has a way of overcoming this difficulty using radioimmunotherapy and some advanced chemistry.
    The aim of their research is to get a destructive radioisotope (in this case the short-half-life samarium 153) into the body and latched onto cancerous cells but not onto any other cells.
    Scientists around the world have created antibody molecules that can identify and attach themselves to one type of cell only. These are called monoclonal antibodies.
    “One trick is to get the radioisotope attached to one of these monoclonal antibodies, which will take it directly to the cancer cell,” said John Webb, Professor of Chemistry at Murdoch.
    “This was tried 10 years ago but the radioisotope kept falling off the antibody.”
    Enter French chemist Anthony Loussouarn, of the Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale (INSERM) in Nantes, France.
    Dr Loussouarn and his French colleagues have created a molecule called a bifunctional chelating agent that has dual properties — it can contain the radioactive element and also fit onto an antibody.
    He is in WA for the two-year project, working with Professor Webb and Professor Robin Giles of Murdoch, and Fremantle Hospital’s nuclear medicine specialist Dr Harvey Turner, to devise a clinical technique to exploit the discovery.
    The research is backed by big guns. The French pharmaceutical company Immunotech has made its antibodies (many extremely expensive) available to the team, Australian Radioisotopes (commercial division of ANSTO) is providing the radioisotopes, Fremantle Hospital’s Nuclear Medicine department is providing laboratories, Murdoch University and INSERM are providing the expertise, while the French Cancer Foundation (Association pour la Recherche contre le Cancer) is paying the wages.

Further information