Prof Evdokiou is Head of the Breast Cancer Research Unit at the Basil Hetzel Institute for Translational Health Research.
Thanks to the support of one of Australian Breast Cancer Research’s donors, this vital work can continue.
Prof Evdokiou, together with his team are developing a non-invasive injectable gel filled with patient’s own cancer fighting T cells as a treatment for solid cancer tumours.
“The T cells will be infused into the gel, keeping them together, and then will be injected into the tumour environment where the T cells will identify and eliminate cancer cells whilst leaving normal cells unharmed,” Prof Evdokiou said.
“This is the first time that such an approach has been developed and if successful will maximise the success of current surgical interventions. Potentially this could be an alternative treatment to chemotherapy and radiotherapy.”
With previous research already demonstrating promising results, Prof Evdokiou is hoping to identify the best injectable system with the ideal characteristics for T cells to survive and migrate to the tumour site whilst maintaining their effectiveness of killing cancer cells.
Prof Evdokiou and the team will now work to complete their pre-clinical project and move quickly to clinical practice.
