A NEW drug, developed by a cancer expert at the University of Bradford, is showing promise as a treatment for one of the most lethal cancers.

The drug, known as HRX9, is being used to treat mesothelioma works by preventing the cancer cells from avoiding apoptosis – the natural process by which unhealthy and damaged cells close themselves down and die.

Professor Richard Morgan, from the University of Bradford’s Institute of Cancer Therapeutics, developed the drug and led the research.

He said: "Both the immune system and nearby healthy cells send signals instructing damaged and unhealthy cells to undergo apoptosis, which is like programmed ‘cell suicide’. But cancer cells have developed a wide range of strategies to ignore these instructions.

"There’s a range of drugs which try to force apoptosis in different cancers, but this is the first one to work in mesothelioma.”

Mesothelioma is a cancer of the lining of the lung. It’s almost always caused by exposure to asbestos and is resistant to all current chemotherapies.

A study by the universities of Bradford and Surrey found that after three weeks’ treatment with HXR9, human mesothelioma tumours in mice stopped growing, with a complete loss of tumour blood vessels and widespread cancer cell death. The results are published in BMC Cancer journal.