Hampshire experts find 'cure' for common cancer

6:30am Monday 6th October 2008

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HAMPSHIRE scientists were today hailing a cure for a common type of cancer that is set to revolutionise the way the disease is treated across the world.

University of Southampton experts claim a single jab of the chemotherapy drug is the best weapon against the most widespread strain of testicular cancer.

In the largest trial of its kind ever carried out, researchers in the city found that those who were given an injection of the remedy had less chance of a relapse, fewer sides effect and a quicker recovery time than those undergoing radiotherapy.

The drug, Carboplatin, has for years been used to treat ovarian and lung cancer.

University of Southampton medical oncology lecturer Ben Mead said: “The initial results of the trial looked encouraging, but we needed to follow patients for another four years before we knew for sure that had been cured.

“These follow up results are very reassuring and have already changed practice in Europe.

“We hope that Carboplatin injections will become the standard treatment for this disease around the world within a few years.”

About 45 per cent of testicular cancers are early stage seminoma and approximately 880 men a year are diagnosed with it each year in the UK.

Researchers tested the single shot treatment on nearly 600 patients and compared the results with more than 900 men given up to three weeks of radiotherapy.

Of those given the jab only five per cent relapsed within three years and none died after further treatment which experts say was a better result than could be expected from other treatments.

Also they found the only two of the 573 patients developed cancer in the other testicle compared to 15 out the 904 given radiotherapy.

Also based at the University of Southampton, Peter Johnson, Cancer Research UK’s chief clinician, said: “This is a great success story for the field of cancer research.

“The results of the treatment with radiotherapy were already good, but the role of chemotherapy treatment had not been clear.

“This trial now shows that chemotherapy can cure early stage seminoma, so that men diagnosed with the disease can be successfully treated with fewer side effects.”

The trial was funded by the Medical Research Council.

The result will be presented by University of Southampton at the National Cancer Research Institute conference in Birmingham today.