Press Release: MRI Drug May Improve Cancer-Killing Ability of Chemotherapy, Study Says

Extract

A contrast agent currently used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), called mangafodipir, may increase the cancer-killing ability of some chemotherapy drugs while protecting normal cells, according to a study in the February 15 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Many anticancer drugs work by increasing the levels of tumor cell hydrogen peroxide. Tumor cells are particularly sensitive to hydrogen peroxide and die as a result. However, certain enzymes in the body can work to protect cells from this kind of damage, rendering certain cancer drugs less effective. In addition, the drugs are toxic to normal cells. The drug mangafodipir, a contrast agent given to patients before they have an MRI, helps promote the production of hydrogen peroxide while at the same time, through different biologic mechanisms, protects healthy cells from the negative effects of oxidative damage.

Jérôme Alexandre, M.D., of the Groupe hospitalier Cochin-Saint Vincent de Paul in Paris, and colleagues exposed tumor cells and white blood cells from 10 cancer patients and white blood cells from six control subjects to three chemotherapy drugs—paclitaxel, oxaliplatin, and 5-fluorouracil—in the presence or absence of mangafodipir. They also studied the effects of mangafodipir on colon cancer cells in mice treated with paclitaxel.