A University of Massachusetts Amherst-Ernest Pharmaceuticals team of scientists has made “exciting,” patient-friendly advances in developing a non-toxic bacterial therapy, BacID, to deliver cancer-fighting drugs directly into tumors. This emerging technology holds promise for very safe and more effective treatment of cancers with high mortality rates, including liver, ovarian and metastatic breast cancer.
Clinical trials with participating cancer patients are estimated to begin in 2027. “This is exciting because we now have all the critical pieces for getting an effective bacterial treatment for cancer,” says Neil Forbes, senior author of the research published recently in the journal Molecular Therapy and professor of chemical engineering at UMass Amherst.
“What we’re trying to do is unlock the…