Researchers home in on precision cancer treatments and an end to side-effects
Researchers at The University of Queensland are developing a precision-guided radiopharmaceutical solution that targets the destruction of tumours while promising more effective, patient-friendly cancer treatments
Sponsored by the University of Queensland
The problem with traditional cancer treatments like chemotherapy and radiotherapy is that they typically lack precision, attacking healthy tissue as well as cancerous cells, and leave some patients with terrible side effects.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Kris Thurecht, deputy director of research at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology and the Centre for Advanced Imaging at The University of Queensland, is pioneering advanced radiopharmaceuticals that could arm oncologists with new patient-specific treatments that target cancer cells alone.
“Knowing the enemy is crucial,” Thurecht says. “Understanding tumour tissue and what makes it unique allows our team to bioengineer molecules with a high affinity for these tissues. By doing that, we can load those molecules up with potent radioisotopes that can more specifically hit the cancer cells with minimal effect on healthy tissues.”
Known as theranostics, these radiopharmaceuticals are effective for both diagnosing and treating cancers, allowing clinicians to select the best-suited radiotherapeutic treatment for each patient.
“This is a great example of how medicines can be personalised, taking out the indiscriminate nature of conventional drugs,” Thurecht says.
“You’re screening a patient with a diagnostic probe, identifying whether that patient is responsive or that they express a particular protein in an area that you’re interested in, and then you’re developing a therapeutic radiopharmaceutical based on that protein target.
“Following this process, there is an extremely good chance that the patient is going to be receptive to the drug.
“If it works in that patient, you can then treat them with the therapeutic radioisotope – it’s the same molecule but you’re just swapping out a diagnostic isotope for a therapeutic isotope.
“That’s really clever and it saves patients from being treated with something that would typically be minimally effective and have unacceptable side effects.”
Theranostics present new treatment pathways for patients, offering an alternative to surgery and tackling refractory cancers that have resisted previous rounds of surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
Thurecht says there is now a global push to develop theranostics as first-line cancer treatments.
That could soon become a reality with the opening of the Australian Research Council (ARC) hub for Advanced Manufacture of Targeted Radiopharmaceuticals (AMTAR) at The University of Queensland.
Created through a $5 million (£4 million) ARC grant and more than $10 million (£8 million) in industry and partner contributions, AMTAR is a one-stop-shop that connects biotech firms with the expertise and high-end infrastructure and equipment to design, test and deliver groundbreaking precision cancer treatments.
“The immediate goal is to create an ecosystem of innovation, presenting industry partners with opportunities to step in and take our findings into a commercial setting and shortening the journey between discovery and translation,” Thurecht says
“But ultimately, it’s about revolutionising the process for translating new cancer medicines and making it available to everyone.”
AMTAR is a collaboration between The University of Queensland, the University of Sydney and multinational radiopharmaceutical industry partners including Telix Pharmaceuticals, AdvanCell, Starpharma, Clarity Pharmaceuticals, Cyclowest and GlyTherix, with new collaborations forming with other major companies such as Novartis.
Telix is a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialisation of theranostic radiopharmaceuticals.
Telix chief scientist Michael Wheatcroft, says it is an exciting partnership: “AMTAR will accelerate the development and commercialisation of novel radiopharmaceuticals in Australia, and the team of high-quality industry, academic and research partners will enable the translational science required to bring these innovative new technologies to patients,” he says.
The hub will also feature contributions from the University of Nottingham, and the University of Tokyo, as well as the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre in the US.