Drug could eliminate side effects of cancer treatment

Radiotherapy for cancer is often debilitating but also necessary, so anything that can help improve side effects is a huge step forward.

- DR MIRIAM STOPPARD

Hats off then to scientists at Newcastle University who have come up with a simple, one-off treatment that can prevent long-term side effects of cancer radiotherapies.

There are about two million cancer survivors in the UK, many of whom face premature memory loss and various diseases resembling premature ageing, to which sadly, there’s no cure. This is thought to be caused by side effects of toxic cancer chemotherapies and radiotherapies, which treat cancer cells but can also damage normal cells.

The researchers wanted to know whether they could prevent such devastating consequences of cancer therapies via a short treatment with senolytics, a class of drugs that specifically eliminates cells damaged due to cancer therapies.