Israeli-Danish cooperation in cancer research gets prize.

2012. szeptember 27 16:53
Israeli-Danish cooperation in cancer research gets prize.
 
The novelty in the mentioned project in cancer research is the use of a radiation called millimeter radiation and is based on a wavelength which has not been used before in cancer therapy. The so-called soft millimeter radiation differs from the type of radiation used so far. The conventional well known radiation kills the cancer cells by heating up to a temperature where the cells simply die but unfortunately this conventional radiation also kills the healthy cells which implies that both the intensity, the time of the treatment and the radiated area has to be kept down to a level where one does not utilize the full potential of the radiation.
 
The “new” radiation, however, does not harm the healthy cells or at most seems damage much less than the conventional radiation. The reason for that is that the new form for radiation does not kill cells by heating.
A series of experiments performed in Ariel University Center consisted of irradiating human lung cancer cells. This kind of cancer cells was chosen for its extreme resistance to chemo-therapy methods. So far, there is no effective method of treatment of the human lung cancer.
The observed in our experiments effects are the following: 1. The cells change significantly their sizes and forms. 2. Large (“monster”) cells begin grow. 3. Nucleus of the cells destruct giving mortality increase. 4. There appear cells with more than two nucleus thus indicating on DNA damage which interrupts the process of the cell’s division and proliferation. These effects cannot be explained by the heating of the medium. The two groups are now trying to explain the effect of the mm-radiation by analyzing the changes the radiation implies on the very molecular and genetic structure of the cells.
 
The results of the research, which is still in the very beginning, occurred so promising that the project was supported by The Carlsberg Foundation, which is formed by the Carlsberg Brewery and also very recently has received a prize from the Danish Fraenkel Foundation, which supports research within Cardiology and Cancer.
 
The Israeli team counts three professors in Physics who originated the research: Prof K. Komoshvili, Prof. J. Levitan and Prof. A. Yahalom. Moreover is Prof Kapilewitch connected to the project and Dr S. Aronov, who is a molecular biologist.
 
The Danish researchers are from Denmarks Technical University and counts among others the weel known physicist Henrik Bohr – a grandson of the jewish physicist and Nobel Prize winner, and a nephew of Aage Bohr also a Nobel Prize winner.