Tackling Australia's national cancer
A self-confessed card-carrying vascular biologist, Professor Levon Khachigian has spent his working life studying how blood vessels - and the cells that run through them - control normal bodily function and disease.
These interests have led him, through curiosity-driven research,
to diverse areas such as atherosclerosis, ocular
neovascularisation, rheumatoid arthritis and tumor growth, as these
illnesses are linked together mechanistically by vascular
biology.
"A tumour can't grow beyond a few millimetres unless it has an
active blood supply," he says. "For many years now I've been
interested in the mechanisms controlling the complex process of
angiogenesis, and ways we can circumvent tumor growth by blocking
neovascularisation in a growing tumour."
Levon's fascination has paid off, with many achievements in
health that have furthered our understanding of heart attacks and
solid tumour growths. Now, he has turned his attention on skin
cancer, Australia's national cancer, with some impressive
results.
"The Cancer Institute NSW Translational Program Grant has
allowed us to carry one of our home-grown and unique gene-targeting
agents from bench to the bedside," he says. "In animal models our
candidate drugs block the growth and even cause regression of three
of the most prevalent skin cancer types: basal cell carcinoma,
squamous cell carcinoma and malignant melanoma.
Australia is the skin cancer capital of
the world. Through the outcomes of our research we can add to the
much-needed array of therapeutic tools, which
are sorely lacking at
the present time.
- Professor Levon Khachigian
"Moreover, these agents prevent the metastatic spread of
squamous cell carcinoma and malignant melanoma."
With his colleagues, Professors Ross Barnetson, Gary Halliday
and Colin Chesterman, Levon is about to start human Phase I
clinical trials at Sydney's Woolcock Institute/Royal Prince Alfred
Hospital in a few months.
"Safety trials are almost complete, and we've engaged a clinical
trials coordinator to assist us in our journey during this exciting
time," he says.
The development of these new drugs may even see a cure for this
disease in the not too distant future.
"Effective alternative treatments for melanoma and non-melanoma
tumours beyond existing chemotherapeutic, immunotherapeutic,
photodynamic therapeutic and surgical options are needed," says
Levon. "Our drugs may offer new alternative cancer treatments with
potency, low cost and specificity."
Levon hopes that his new discoveries will also help the basic
understanding about cancer to be able to further developments in
cancer research both in NSW around the world.
"Cancer is complex and our inability to control this disease at
the present time is a symptom of our incomplete understanding of
the underlying genetic, epigenetic, biochemical and cell biological
basis of cancer initiation and progression," he says. "This need to
a deeper appreciation of mechanisms of disease will only change
with further seminal cancer research and translation.
"I am hopeful much of this research can happen in NSW," says
Levon. "Cancer Institute NSW support for research and public
awareness is the envy of all other states and territories in
Australia. It has also allowed NSW to retain and attract our
nation's best cancer researchers and is a shining beacon of what
health and medical research can do."
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