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ELEANOR HALL: Now to Queensland, where scientists say they've made a breakthrough in curing breast cancer. A Queensland Institute of Medical Research team has used a new combination of treatments to fight an aggressive type of breast cancer, and it's the first time a therapy has successfully stopped the cancer from spreading.
In Brisbane Stephanie Smail reports.
STEPHANIE SMAIL: Women who suffer from triple negative breast cancer are usually under 50, and many patients only survive five years after their diagnosis. There are treatments for the aggressive cancer, but they don't always stop it spreading or reoccurring.
Scientists at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research have investigated a new way to kill the cancer cells, with promising results. Dr Fares Al-Ejeh is a senior research scientist at the Institute.
FARES AL-EJEH: Most treatments given in the clinic they can kill cancer cells. The problem is some cancer cells can resist those drugs and they are the reason why the cancer comes back a few years later or has spread through the body. We found a way of killing those cells specifically.
STEPHANIE SMAIL: He says a lower dose of chemotherapy and a special type of radiation destroy the original cancer and stop it coming back.
FARES AL-EJEH: So we've linked radiation to the protein that binds to the cancer cells, and we were able to deliver radiation specifically to those cells that remain after chemotherapy. And by killing them we ensure that this cancer does not come back.
STEPHANIE SMAIL: Fares Al-Ejeh says the new treatment has a 100 per cent success rate on mice and the next step is to prove it works with humans. He says the new therapy should be more gentle on patients.
FARES AL-EJEH: We are not using the full dose of chemotherapy that partly used in the clinic. We are reducing the chemotherapy. And with radiation we're not doing external radiation that would affect surround normal tissue, we're actually delivering radiation specifically to the tumour. So in concept it should not be as toxic as the current treatments.
STEPHANIE SMAIL: Fares Al-Ejeh is hoping to begin clinical trials for the new treatment in two to five years.
FARES AL-EJEH: From our studies in animal models we were able to show that we eliminate the cancer, so we are hoping for gold, that we will be able to provide, quotation, "a cure". I mean, if it gives an extra 10 years or 15 years or 20 years to survival that's good enough for us, but we hoping that we are developing a cure.
ELEANOR HALL: That's Doctor Fares Al-Ejeh from the Queensland Institute if Medical Research speaking to Stephanie Smail.
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2013/s3738203.htm