Lymphatic Cancer Therapy 'Works'

Source: China Daily

A ground-breaking therapy for lymphatic cancer, introduced in Hong Kong just last year, has been able to destroy cancer cells with minimal collateral damage, University of Hong Kong (HKU) doctors said at a press conference on July 28.

Lymphoma is the tenth most common type of cancer in Hong Kong, killing 285 people in 2003 alone. More than 600 new cases are reported each year and the number has risen by about 20 per cent over the past decade.

Traditionally, the ailment is treated by external beam radiotherapy, chemotherapy or stem cell or bone marrow transplant, depending on the stage at which the disease is diagnosed.

As with other kinds of cancer, radiotherapy is applied for early stage lymphoma because lymphoma cells are extremely sensitive to radiation, and hence can be killed effectively.

The problem with this method is that radiation beams not focused enough tend to kill good cells too, thereby causing serious side and after effects.

The new therapy - called radioimmunotherapy - takes advantage of recent developments in monoclonal antibody that stimulates a patient's immune system to kill the cancerous cells. It combines the technology with radioactive isotopes and can kill the cancerous cells at short range.

The entire course of treatment takes only eight days and costs about HK0,000.

A recent clinical trial shows the average duration of a patient's response to the therapy is four to five years. And the sooner a patient receives treatment, the better the results. (By Albert Au Yeung, HK Edition of China Daily)

Editor: Jessie Hwang