Oz boffins report breakthrough in lung cancer treatment

New Delhi, June 16(ANI): Australian scientists have discovered that targeting a protein involved in cell division could result in reducing deaths from lung cancer.

According to the researchers at the University of New South Wales and the Pharmacoproteomics Program at the Children's Cancer Institute for Medical Research, this discovery could lead to new ways of approaching treatment of non-small cell lung cancers, which accounts for 80 percent of all lung cancers.

In a statement, scientists said that targeting a protein- B3-tubulin-known for maintaining the structural integrity of cells, could be key to increasing drug sensitivity in non-small cell lung cancer, reports English.news.cn.

They discovered that by suppressing B3-Tubulin the sensitivity of the cancer to standard chemotherapy drugs could be increased.

Benitec, an Australian biotech company, is currently developing therapeutics focused on specifically blocking B3- tubulin activity.

These findings have been published in the international journal Cancer Research. (ANI)