• Question: How do you target the drugs to a specific cancer?

    Asked by ahas12 to Charlotte, Dhvanil, Frank, Jim, Leila on 12 Mar 2013. This question was also asked by sarahf100.
    • Photo: Jim O Doherty

      Jim O Doherty answered on 12 Mar 2013:

      Good question. We use some very clever chemistry. Certain types of tumours have certain “holes” in them, and once we chop them up and put them under a microscope we can make a chemical that will plug this hole. Its like an antidote for a poison. Once we attach a radioactive particle to this, we can inject it into a person with this type of cancer and see it under a special scanner.

    • Photo: Dhvanil Karia

      Dhvanil Karia answered on 12 Mar 2013:

      Tumours need nutrients to grow like any other tissue of the body. So we replace these nutrients with things that are like the nutrients but actually they are drugs that go to the cancer tissue and kill it/starve it. Basically we fool the tumour to think that what we are giving it is food but it actually is poison. Just like “rat kill” that we find in the super markets These drugs are attached to the nutrients as Jim explained above.

    • Photo: Leila Nichol

      Leila Nichol answered on 12 Mar 2013:

      Drugs are designed specifically to go to the cancer, these are designed in labs with a lot of testing before they are ever used on patients. It’s very clever! Like the boys said!

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