Dr. Wael ElShamy, director of the Molecular Cancer Therapeutics Program at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson. (Photo courtesy UMMC)
Dr. Wael ElShamy, who is the Director of the Molecular Cancer Therapeutic Program at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, has patented research that could aid in the fight to cure cancer.
The patent covers a procedure that will diagnose and treat several types of cancer and offer more personalized medicine for cancer patients. The procedure was successful in a lab on triple negative breast cancer samples and is in the process of becoming a clinical trial for patients.
Dr. ElShamy’s research enables doctors to view cancer cells under a microscope and to pinpoint suitable medication to attack different cells. This creates a more personalized treatment for patients.
“If you stratify patients by who will respond and who will not respond before you start them on trial, you can save patients that agony of wondering if this drug will work,” ElShamy said.
El Shamy’s method has the ability to lower the cost of clinical trials for patients.
“We can lower the cost because of this method to define which patients would respond to treatment and which will not,” ElShamy said.
“That will bring the cost way down.”
It is unknown when research will begin on the clinical trials.
“It depends on funding to get the drugs to the patients. We are enrolling for clinical trials,” ElShamy said.
The drug used in research, Imatinib Mesylate, worked to halt about 80 percent of cancers in the sample. While ElShamy initially limited his research to triple negative breast cancer samples, he discovered nuclear segments present in other cancers as well. ElShamy’s patent can be used in therapies for breast, liver, ovarian, colon, brain, lung and prostate cancer. These drugs work by halting tumor growth, which is produced by a protein called Geminin. As these levels fall, cancer cells die.
Pharmacy student Grant Ratcliffe said he believes this patent can create more funding for drugs that cover a variety of cancers and decrease cancer cell growth.
“The research could stop the futile treatment of cancer cells with drugs that are ineffective for that type of cell,” Ratcliffe said. “His research could work towards a more personalized future for cancer treatment and lessen the barrage of drugs that cancer patients now receive, unnecessary tissue damage inflicted by the drugs, and health care costs.”
The research was conducted with a $720,000 grant from the American Cancer Society.
