The breakthrough discovery involves a drug created from a protein derived from a malaria parasite known as VAR2CSA. According to the researchers from the University of British Columbia, the drug is found to be effective in chemotherapy-resistant bladder cancer, which is the fifth most common among the numerous types of cancer. Chemotherapy is the primary weapon in treating bladder cancer. But unfortunately, extremely aggressive bladder tumors are almost impossible to treat as they are resistant to chemotherapy, with the anti-cancer drugs refusing to make their way into the tumors.
Because it requires life-long surveillance, bladder cancer is the most expensive cancer to treat on a per-patient basis for the NHS. The researchers describe their newly developed drug in a paper recently published in the journal European Urology. “This is the first study in which researchers put the concept…
