Skin cancer treatment breakthrough

SCIENTISTS have hit upon a revolutionary way of treating skin cancers more effectively.

The team at Queen’s University in Belfast have developed a novel needle-free jet injection device that improves the way a cancer-busting drug is delivered.

The breakthrough could benefit the growing number of skin cancer patients being treated with a technique called photodynamic therapy (PDT).

PDT, developed in the 1980s, involves using a light-sensitive drug in the form of a cream and rubbing on the area affected by the cancer.

A laser activates a component in the cream to destroy the cancerous cells.

The new device is more effective at targeting the treatment at the cancer.

Pharmacy student, Desmond Morrow, together with Dr Paul McCarron and Dr Ryan Donnolly, at the university’s medical biology centre believe the device will revolutionise the treatment of basal cell carcinoma, the most common form of skin cancer.

The device may also have the potential to eradicate difficult-to-treat skin tumours.

Mr Morrow explained that PDT was a relatively new form of skin cancer treatment that resulted in the death of the tumour.

Sometimes, however, its success in individual patients was limited by the poor penetration of the active agent into the skin.

“Our research shows that a new way of administering the drug can improve the amount that crosses the skin barrier and gets to the required site,” he said.

The therapy will be especially beneficial for treating large areas as conventional treatments that include surgical excision and radiotherapy can lead to poor cosmetic outcomes such as scarring.

Statistics show that one in eight Irish men and one in 10 women will develop skin cancer by the age of 74.

It is the most common cancer in this country with more than 5,700 cases diagnosed each year.