Experimental Drug Deals Effectively with Prostate Cancer Cells

An experimental RNA-based drug acts by using genetic material called targeting RNA, to enter cancer cells, and another type, called silencing RNA , to stop the expression of a protein that keeps the cells alive, thereby destroying prostate cancer cells leaving normal cells unharmed.

The drug, developed at Duke University Medical Center, uses one type of genetic material, called In tests in mice with prostate cancer, the drug shrank the size of their tumors by half, while the tumors in control mice that did not receive the drug continued to grow, said study co-author Bruce Sullenger, Ph.D., director of Duke's Translational Research Institute and chief of the Division of Experimental Surgery.

The mice showed no side effects from the treatment, Sullenger said.