For researcher Dr. Vinata Lokeshwar, studying cancer is not just an academic endeavor. It’s personal.
Lokeshwar lost her father to cancer, and now she’s working long hours with her laboratory colleagues at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center to stop the disease in its tracks.
“The passion comes from there. I want to make sure that my research will be helpful for somebody in my own lifetime,” said Lokeshwar, who has a Ph.D. in molecular cell and developmental biology.
On a recent show, Lokeshwar said she has long been researching tests to detect cancer early. If you can detect it early, she said, there are many treatments that can actually cure the disease.
The idea is to identify the family of molecules that causes prostate and other cancers, and then find compounds that can inhibit those molecules.
And she may have done just that.
Lokeshwar and her colleagues (Yates, Lopez, S. Lokeshwar, Jordan, Kallifatidis, Ortiz, Hoye and Altman) recently published the results of a study in which they discovered that a chemical compound 4-MU, which is also sold over-the-counter as a dietary supplement in Europe and Asia, actually makes prostate cancer cells commit suicide.
In tests on lab mice, the compound was completely non-toxic and stopped the disease regardless of how far it had progressed.
Lokeshwar said these experiments, which took more than three years to complete, open the door to clinical trials in patients.
And there is hope that 4-MU will be effective with other types of cancers because it inhibits the trigger molecules that are common to them.
This is fantastic news, and it just underscores the value of having a research facility like Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center in the heart of our city.
Click here to listen to the exciting interview with UHealth’s Dr. Vinata Lokeshwar.
