Feds Ok Patent For Cancer Drug

The federal government has allowed the Idaho State University patent on a drug that could be used to kill brain cancer cells.

The U.S. Patent Office formally allowed the patent on Boronophenylalanine-fructose, Idaho State pharmacy professor Thomas LaHann announced.

It is being used in American clinical trials of the Boron Neutron Capture Therapy. The drug carries concentrated doses of the element boron to cancer cells. The patient is then exposed to a brief blast of neutron radiation.

The boron atoms are activated and produce toxic products which kill the cancer cells without harming healthy brain tissue. It could be a matter of life and death, since some brain tumors cannot be removed surgically.

The treatment has been highly successful in treating tumors in test animals. Fourteen people with brain cancer have used the drug and the boron therapy.