Doctors in the US have achieved a breakthrough in developing drugs that repair lung cells damaged by smoking, which causes 99 percent of the most lethal type of lung cancer.
Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore found that severe lung damage caused by smoking causes a ‘repair message’ to be constantly switched on, making too many new cells and ultimately resulting in cancer.
Drugs to switch the repair message off would therefore prevent the damage, they say
The team is now testing drugs that might block the repair message in mice. One that has shown promise is called cyclopamine. It could be three to four years before the drugs can be tested on humans.
ANI, London