[From the desk of Gunner: Today we hop in the time machine once again to see what technology is in our not-so-distant future. Our pal Jonathan Kolber shares some miraculous advancements in cancer treatments -- and one company in his Transformational Technology Portfolio that is on the cutting edge of this field. Enjoy...]

The range of treatments that’s been tried against cancer over the years has been staggering. Several decades ago, cocky scientists proclaimed that a “war on cancer” would soon bring an end to this scourge of humanity.

Like every “war on X” that’s been declared in recent decades, it seemed for a long time like this one was going nowhere. (Have you lost count of the wars? I know I have.)

Now, again, multiple new approaches are emerging and being tested. It would be beyond the scope of a small article such as this to cover them all. However, several interesting ones have escaped mainstream attention. One of these is so new it’s barely out of the laboratory.

One reason cancer has been so hard to finish off is that it’s crafty at defending itself. Many tumor cells create an enzyme that modifies an ambient protein, making it into a shield against both radiation and chemotherapy.

 Cancer Research: Blocking the Enzyme

ScienceDaily reports that University of Florida researchers have found a way to block this enzyme from operating, as recently published in the journal Cancer Research. A gene called focal adhesion kinase (FAK) produces the enzyme. Dr. William G. Cance, a researcher at the University of Florida Shands Cancer Center, has led much of the pioneering work on FAK and its relationship to the protein VEGFR-3.

This protein facilitates growth of channels in the lymph system through which breast, colon and thyroid tumors spread. Therefore, anything that could impede the growth would help control cancer.

Because normal cells generate much lower levels of FAK than tumor cells do, treatments could be developed to target FAK and VEGFR-3 at dosages far below the toxic levels required of today’s chemotherapy agents.

Cance said, “…we look at the various genes and proteins that make their tumors what they are.” This approach of characterizing the biological behavior of specific types of cancers in specific patients is very cutting-edge. Transformational Technologies Portfolio company deCODE genetics (DCGN: NASDAQ) is working in this area.

Cancer Research: NanoTargeted Oncologics

I recently co-founded a company with my Emerging Capital Report predecessor James Davidson and some mutual friends. (To those long-term subscribers who wonder what he’s doing, James continues to be an active investor in transformational technology companies. Occasionally, our interests overlap and we work together.)

This company in formation, named NanoTargeted Oncologics, will develop and commercialize a patent-pending approach to the early-stage identification and treatment of various cancers. It does so by identifying a unique molecular signature on the surface of these cells, a signature not previously considered important.

This signature can be used not only to identify the cells a year or more earlier than conventional treatments, but also to develop proprietary ways of delivering chemotherapy like a laser beam: focused on its target. The chemotherapy would target and kill cancer cells and leave healthy cells alone. It has both veterinary and human applications.

Here’s how it works: A proprietary family of proteins serves as a kind of marker for a particular patient at his or her stage of cancer (think of different blood types and you’ve got the basic idea). The proteins have affinity for that unique molecular signature on the cancer cell’s surface, a signature healthy cells lack.

The proteins will be delivered with a radioactive tracer. This will allow nuclear medicine departments to see cancers on SPECT scanners (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography, a widely used device that relies on radioactive technetium) as much as two years earlier than is otherwise possible, and at one-tenth the cost of the PET scans now being used for cancer detection.

Even more exciting is that it’s possible to build special delivery capsules for chemotherapy agents using this method. Imagine this: instead of delivering chemo into the patient’s body where it kills both cancer and healthy cells, this new method will allow the special proteins to serve as “keys” that attach to cancer cell “locks.” By affixing a molecule of chemotherapy agent to the “key,” it can be delivered to the cancer cells and only the cancer cells. There is no toxicity to normal cells.

These are exciting times we live in, and I immensely enjoy the fact that our transformational technology investing activities stand not only to make us a lot of money, but also to improve our lives and the lives of many others in the process.

To your profitable future,

Jonathan Kolber
February 15, 2006

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