Trojan Horse Technique Slows Tumor Growth

A study has found that a drug that combines a radioactive isotope called Indium-111 with an amino acid called epidermal growth factor (EGF) can slow the growth of large tumors three-fold when injected into mice and cause many tiny tumors to regress.

The normal role of EGF is to bind to receptors on the surface of certain cells, including some breast cancer cells, to stimulate their growth. EGF later moves inside the cell to shut off the growth signal. The researchers created a drug, 111in-hEGF, that mixes EGF with the radioactive isotope Indium-111. Once injected into the body, the EGF portion carries the Indium-111 to the heart of the cancer cell. Breast cancer cells are especially susceptible to this drug because they use more EGF than normal cells.

"Like the legend of the Trojan horse, in which invading soldiers hid inside a hollow wooden horse to fool the enemy, this drug enables deadly radioisotopes to hide within the EGF as it passes naturally into the breast cancer cells,” explained senior author Raymond Reilly, of the University of Toronto (Canada). "These radioisotopes cannot harm the cancer cell from the outside. The key is getting them into the cancer cell where their radioactive particles can destroy the cell's DNA.”




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