The Las Vegas Sun is running an article on the pioneering cancer research of Dr. Nam Hoang Dang, chief of hematological malignancies at the Nevada Cancer Institute. Dr. Dang has developed a compound that he believes can cure certain forms of cancer, including kidney cancer, mesothelioma and T-cell lymphoma. The FDA has recently given its approval to Dr. Dang to start a Phase I clinical trial of the drug, which he began work on twenty-four years ago.

When Dr. Dang was studying for his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees at Harvard University, he discovered a molecule, known as CD26, that plays an essential role in the formation of multiple types of cancer. He then began work on developing a CD26 antibody to attack those cancer cells. He claims that lab- and animal- studies have confirmed the anti-cancer benefit to his drug and now the FDA has given its approval to start the first round of human trials. Dr. Dang believes that targeted therapies, like his drug and ones similar to it, represent a real advance in cancer treatment over traditional options, such as chemotherapy, because they target specific weak points in a cancer cell and then exploit those weak points to stop the growth of the cancer.

It takes many years for a drug to reach the market, so even if the phase I tests are successful for Dr. Dang, it will be quite sometime before actual patients are given his compound. However, his work still represents a major breakthrough in our understanding of the physiological aspects of carcinogenesis and all involved are hopeful that his research will lead to real improvements in the lives of mesothelioma patients, as well as other cancer patients, all over the world.

Labels: cancer, mesothelioma