Scientist hones cancer therapy strategies

TALLAHASSEE, Fla., July 2 (UPI) -- A U.S. scientist says he's using high-powered computers to create cancer treatments involving a new class of tumor-killing drugs.

Florida State University Assistant Professor Kevin Chen says he wants to determine how substances known as recombinant immunotoxins can best be modified to attack and kill malignant tumors while doing minimal harm to a patient's healthy cells.

"Cancer is a disease of tremendous complexity, so the analysis and interpretation of data demands sophisticated, specialized computational methods," Chen said.

He said recombinant immunotoxins are new drugs consisting of tiny fragments of antibody proteins that are fused at the genetic level to toxins produced by certain types of bacteria, fungi or plants.

"Once injected into the body, the antibody portion of the immunotoxin targets specific proteins called antigens that are massively expressed on the surface of cancer cells," Chen said. "These cells are subsequently killed by the accompanying toxins. Normal, healthy cells, meanwhile, are not recognized and thus are spared."

The study that included FSU researchers Junho Kim and Xinmei Li and molecular biologist Byungkook Lee of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md., appeared in the March issue of the journal Annals of Biomedical Engineering.