Dr Jon Golding and researchers at the OU’s Faculty of Science have found that combining Photodynamic therapy (PDT) with glycolysis inhibition decreases the long-term survival of cancer cells. PDT is a clinical anti-cancer treatment that combines a photosensitiser drug and light to destroy illuminated tumours. The researchers found that short-term (24 hour) exposure of PDT-treated human breast cancer cells to clinically approved glycolysis inhibitors caused a ten-fold decrease in the long-term survival of the cancer cells. Normal cells were not affected. The work is published in the British Journal of Cancer.
Dr Golding has been funded by the European Society of Veterinary Dermatology for a two-year clinical trial of the new combination PDT technique to treat skin cancers in horses. This will inform subsequent work to bring combination PDT into human clinical use.