New drug may kill cancer cells and prevent metastasis

Scientists have developed a compound that could both kill melanoma cells and prevent metastasis.

Scientists may have discovered a drug which boasts dual action when it comes to combating cancer, both destroying diseased cells and preventing metastasis.

This makes the medicine "the first example of a preclinical candidate possessing both of these properties", according to authors of the paper.

Nathan Luedtke and colleagues published their findings in the journal ACS Chemical Biology after conducting an experiment involving laboratory mice.

The scientists developed the compound after setting out to find a superior alternative to photodynamic therapy (PDT), a drug commonly used to treat cancer.

It only becomes active when exposed to a light source, so doctors administer the medicine and then direct lasers at the tumour in order to destroy diseased cells.

This drug cannot prevent metastasis, but the new compound has exhibited the ability to block a biological signal which motivates the process.

Initial testing also indicates that the medicine can destroy melanoma cells, which form malignant tumours most commonly in the skin.