Dec. 5, 2001 Scientists from the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive
Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins have created bacteria that
selectively target large advanced tumors in mice. Results of
their experiments are reported in the November 27, 2001 issue of
the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The
scientists found a way to exploit a special germ’s taste for
oxygen-starved environments and direct them to target pockets of
dead and dying cells within large tumors. These advanced tumors
generally have areas of poor blood circulation and thus little
oxygen. The lack of oxygen renders them relatively resistant to
conventional chemotherapy and radiation but open to bacteria
that can grow without oxygen. “The idea is to selectively attack
these tumors from inside with the bacteria and from the outside
with chemotherapy,” says Bert Vogelstein, M.D., Clayton
Professor of Oncology and Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical
Institute. The scientists systematically screened numerous
bacterial species to find one that wou