China scientists show how arsenic treats blood cancer

	Tweet

Scientists in China have demonstrated how arsenic—a favourite murder weapon in the Middle Ages—destroys deadly blood cancer by targeting and killing specific proteins that keep the cancer alive.

“Our study showed how arsenic directly targets these proteins and kills them,” lead researcher Zhang Xiaowei at the State Key Laboratory of Medical Genomics in Shanghai, China, told Reuters.

“Unlike chemotherapy, the side effects of arsenic (in treating acute promyelocytic leukemia) are very low. There is no hair loss or suppression of bone marrow (function). We are interested in finding out how arsenic can be used in other cancers,” Zhang said by telephone.

Well known for its toxicity, arsenic was regarded in the past as the king among poisons because its symptoms are like those of cholera and can often go undetected.

In China, however, it has long served a dual purpose. Apart from intentional poisoning, it has been used for at least 2,000 years in traditional Chinese medicine.

In 1992, a group of Chinese doctors reported how they used arsenic to treat acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL), a blood and bone marrow cancer that has surprisingly high cure rates of over 90 percent in China.

However, the actual workings of arsenic and how it interacts with cancer tissues has never been clear—until Zhang and his colleagues used modern technology to find out.

In a paper published in the journal Science, Zhang and his team, which includes Health Minister Chen Zhu, described how they used modern equipment and saw how arsenic attacked specific proteins that would otherwise be keeping the cancer alive and well.

“This shows how Western technology can be used to find out about the mysteries of Chinese medicine,” Zhang said.

“Although many countries are now using arsenic to treat APL, some countries are resistant to the idea. It depends a lot on whether doctors recommend it and whether patients accept it.”

In APL, there is a drop in the production of normal red blood cells and platelets, resulting in anemia and thrombocytopenia. The bone marrow is unable to produce healthy red blood cells. Until the 1970s, APL was 100 percent fatal and there was no effective treatment.

“The clinical result of arsenic in treating APL is well-established. More than 90 percent of APL patients in China have (at least) five years of disease-free survival,” Zhang said.

In a separate commentary in Science, Scott Kogan at the University of California San Francisco Cancer Center wrote that proper case selection and combination therapy with arsenic may lead to improved outcomes for treating not only promyelocytic leukemia, but other diseases as well.

“If so, an ancient medicine, revived through careful clinical and biological studies in modern times, will have an even greater impact on human health,” wrote Kogan, who was not linked to the Chinese study.

---
By Tan Ee Lyn

SINGAPORE (Reuters)

RELATED STORIES:
Individualizing Treatment for Multiple Myeloma Patients   Exercise Benefits Leukemia Patients   Less Intensive Hodgkin’s Chemo Works Better   On the Forefront of the Fight Against Multiple Myeloma   Petrochemicals linked to leukemia in young adults   Smarter use of existing treatment helps dramatically boost survival of young AML patients   Celgene drug boosts multiple myeloma survival   New Therapeutic Options for Newly Diagnosed Multiple Myeloma Patients   Mutations Point the Way to New Leukemia Drugs   ODC Therapy, Inc. Reports Melanoma Vaccine Research Results   Formaldehyde raises risk of deadly cancers: study   Dasatinib offers new options for leukemia patients   A Collaboration to Find New Tools to Fight Leukemia   Long-term therapy in the fight against multiple myeloma   Stress Hormone May Hasten the Progression of Certain Blood Cancers   At-home care of kids with leukemia prone to errors   Study reveals need for personalized approach in treatment of AML   X-rays linked to increased childhood leukemia risk   Childhood Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Treatment May Increase Health Risks   Drug That Modifies Gene Activity Could Help Some Older Leukemia Patients   Disparities among patients with extremity soft-tissue sarcomas   Anemia ups hospitalization, death risk for elderly

Comments

[ + Post Your Own ]

Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not Armenian Medical Network's stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.

There are no comments for this entry yet. [ + Comment here + ]