Drugs may make radiation treatments safer, better

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - New experimental compounds make cancer cells more vulnerable to radiation while protecting healthy cells, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday in a finding that may lead to safer, more effective treatments for cancer.

Studies in mice and in human cells showed the compounds protected normal cells from radiation injury, they said.

"When we take those agents and give them to animals and human cells, we protect the animals and cells from extreme doses of radiation," said Dr. Jeff Isenberg of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, whose study appears in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

They found that mice treated with a drug that blocks a molecular doorway or receptor called CD47 made them resistant to radiation injury, protecting skin, muscle and delicate bone marrow cells.

It also made the radiation treatments more effective. Tumors in treated mice grew back more slowly and were 89 percent smaller after exposure to radiation than other mice.

"We were stunned by the initial findings," Isenberg said in a telephone interview. "We repeated these studies over several years in different kinds of cancers."

One of the first effects of radiation is the hair falls out, Isenberg said.

"When we protect our animals with the compound, they don't even lose their hair when exposed to radiation," he said.