TAIPEI: A new nano target drug which could treat advanced-stage cancers, particularly colorectal cancer, has been developed by a research division of the government policy-making Atomic Energy Council (AEC), an official of the council said Monday.

The potential therapeutic drug, which treats late-stage colorectal cancer, has completed trials on animals and is expected to begin phase 1 clinical trials on humans in Taiwan in 2011, said Lee Teh-wei, a section chief with the AEC Institute of Nuclear Energy.

The new drug uses a nanodelivery system to take radionuclides to the tumor cells. The radionuclides then stop the supply of nutrition to the cancer cells and consequently kill them, according to Lee.

Noting that colorectal cancer has become the third most common cancer type in Taiwan, Lee said the new drug will provide some hope to late-stage colorectal cancer patients.

A patent application has been submitted for the drug in both Taiwan and the United States, and expectations are that patent rights will be granted next year, Lee added.

Meanwhile, according to Wang Shih-chen, director of the Nuclear Medicine Department of Taipei Veterans General Hospital, where the phase 1 clinical trials of the new drug on humans will be conducted beginning in 2011, the drug offers promise in providing safer nuclear medicine to patients.

He said the drug also holds promise in treating advanced breast cancer, prostate cancer and kidney cancer.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 11/11/2009 page2)