Breast cancer breakthrough in mice fuels hopes for human sufferers

A battery implanted into mice has cured them of breast cancer within two weeks, triggering hopes that it could be as successful in humans. The minuscule device works by creating a tiny current in salt water injected into surrounding tumour tissue which then soaks up oxygen.

Scientists who carried out the research say the battery is self-charging and lasts for up to 500 hours.

By soaking up oxygen it means that the device starves cancer cells of oxygen — a condition called hypoxia.

The technique also increases the effectiveness of drugs injected to target areas of hypoxic cells.

Lead author Professor Fan Zhang, of Fudan University in Shanghai, China, said: “After 14 days, the tumours in the five mice that received both the working battery and drug treatment had decreased by an average of 90 per cent — with four of these mice experiencing tumour disappearance.”

“Tumours in the other test mice which did not have the combination of battery implant and drugs either remained the same size or increased.”

The drugs used are known as HAPs — hypoxia-activated prodrugs.

There is limited evidence that they are effective so they are not currently approved for clinical use.

But Professor Zhang explained: “Tumours typically deplete the oxygen in the surrounding non-cancerous tissues as they grow, resulting in the cells becoming oxygen-free, or hypoxic.”

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He added: “Hypoxia-activated prodrugs aim to take advantage of this feature by only targeting hypoxic cells — minimising damage to healthy cells and reducing side effects.

“The battery can cover the tumour and persistently consume the oxygen within it for more than 14 days.”

But The Sun reports that Professor Randall Johnson, of Cambridge University, warned inducing hypoxia in a tumour can increase risk of cancer spread.

He said: “While this didn’t appear to occur in these mice, the costs and benefits of the battery’s use in people needs to be assessed before human treatment.”

Breast cancer kills 11,500 people in the UK on average every year.

The study comes just a few months after researchers in Paris discovered that ants can detect the scent of cancer in urine.

Lead researcher Professor Patrizia d’Ettorre, of Sorbonne Paris Nord University in Paris, France, said: “Ants can be used as bio-detectors to discriminate healthy individuals from tumor-bearing ones.”

The ant research, which was published in January, builds on a previous study by Professor d’Ettorre and her colleagues where they showed ants were able to “sniff out” human cancer cells grown in the lab.