New anti-cancer therapy

Having just finished my hospital placement last week, I feel really pleased and I’m looking forward to reflecting on my experiences such as shadowing the independent cardiology pharmacist, working on the surgical ward, witnessing the Medicines Information Pharmacist dealing with queries.

 I opened my email and found that I had been sent a PJonline editorial issue, which had an article titled “Targeting the thioredoxin system in the treatment of certain cancers” I was excited to see this, as this reminded me of what I had learnt on my placement, where I observed the technical services technician reconstitute a cytotoxic regimen (Oxaliplatin and 5% glucose) in the negative pressure isolator in the clean room, which was prescribed by an oncologist for the treatment of colorectal cancer.

This potentially new anticancer treatment mentioned thioredoxin, which may have a role in the development of cancer, how it can be inhibited directly or indirectly. Since the discovery of the thioredoxin system it has been the subject of many studies. Thioredoxin inhibitors have the potential to show a broad range anticancer activity and therefore can offer a unique and attractive anticancer therapy. 

When would this potential new drug make it to the market I thought, what kind of cancers would it be able to treat? Would it be any more effective than current anticancer therapies already available on the market? Would its side-effects be less severe relative to other anticancer agents? These are the questions that I would like to find answers to. This potentially new anticancer therapy may form part of the oncology unit in my final year.

Also there have been many potential drug therapies that looked promising in in-vitro studies, but when it came to in-vivo studies, the risks outweighed the benefits. What will be the fate of this potentially new anticancer therapy? Perhaps, this would be a worthwhile project in my final year.