Theralase Discovers Anti-Cancer Drug Fluoresces in Tissue
5 hours ago
TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / May 14, 2015 / Theralase Technologies Inc. ("Theralase" or the "Company") (TSX Venture: TLT) (TLTFF), a leading biotechnology manufacturer focused on commercializing medical technologies to eliminate pain and destroy cancer, has discovered that its lead anti-cancer drug, TLD-1433, emits a fluorescent signature when light activated in a Non-Muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer ("NMIBC") animal model.
The advantages of this discovery are three fold:
1) It can be used as a diagnostic tool for the oncologist to detect the presence of cancer cells and micro-metastases too small to be seen by the human eye.
2) It can be used to determine sufficient uptake of TLD-1433 into the cancer cells
3) After light activation, it can determine if the cancer cells that have absorbed the drug have been destroyed.
Theralase intends to use this new discovery in the treatment of NMIBC.
Clinical Treatment Protocol of NMBIC with Photo Dynamic Therapy:
- Intravesical installation of TLD-1433 into the bladder via cystoscope
- Allow approximately sixty minutes for the drug to diffuse into the bladder cancer cells
- Flush the bladder and refill with water
- Visual analysis by the uro-oncologist to check for fluorescence to indicate the presence of cancer cells, their specific location and whether sufficient quantities of the drug have been absorbed to proceed to light activation
- Light activation for approximately thirty minutes
- Post treatment analysis to check for no fluorescence indicating that all bladder cancer cells that absorbed the drug have been destroyed
Dr. Arkady Mandel, Chief Scientific Officer stated that, "TLD-1433-based fluorescence optical imaging technology represents an exciting opportunity in employing this technology to systematically detect and destroy cancer cells, improving the specificity of disease detection and treatment. The technology offers relative ease of integration into the operating room environment with instruments commonly used in a minimal invasive urological procedure. This technology holds promise to revolutionize our clinical paradigm in guiding medical procedures and can provide oncological surgeons and urologists with intraoperative capability to visualize and distinguish diseased from healthy tissue with cellular and molecular specificity."
Roger Dumoulin-White, President and CEO stated, "Theralase continues to make ground breaking discoveries in our pursuit for the safe and effective treatment of cancer, commencing with NMIBC. The entire Theralase team looks forward to proving the safety, tolerability and efficacy of this technology in a Health Canada Phase Ib human clinical study."
The Video Announcement is available in the link below:
http://youtu.be/5kZDwQSXsyw
