• 11/26/2005
  • Australia
  • staff
  • The Age (theage.com.au)

An Australian-developed cancer drug that is dramatically improving survival rates could be available to the public within 12 months.

Tirapazamine had already cured humans suffering neck and head cancers, and could be used for lung, throat and cervical tumours, Fairfax newspapers reported.

Researchers say Olympic gold medallist Cathy Freeman’s former husband, Sandy Bodecker, had used the drug and made a full recovery from what was diagnosed as inoperable throat cancer.

Professor Lester Peters, a world leader in cancer research from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, is leading the drug’s trial.

He told Fairfax the drug could be “a cure, but not in everyone”.

“But a huge proportion of patients have had their tumours eradicated if they’ve been treated with this drug.”

Prof Peters said tirapazamine worked by targeting cancer cells that were starved of oxygen, which were typically resistant to conventional treatment and particularly malignant. The drug is used with chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

Fairfax said the second stage of the human trials, involving 550 patients around the world, was under way and should be finished by June.

If the final stage is successful, the drug can then be registered by the US Food and Drug Administration.