Israeli Scorpion Venom To Cure Brain Cancer

Glioma is considered as the most fatal brain cancer. Although glioma tumor can be removed through surgery,  in most instances, the cancer cells are not completely eradicated. Every year, about 17,000 patients are diagnosed with this deadly tumor. Most of them die within a year after they have been diagnosed as glioma treatments are often unsuccessful.

There’s a new hope for them though. A group of scientists from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’s Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute in LA tested in humans for the first time a substance taken from a protein found in a big yellow Israeli scorpion’s venom called “TM-601.” They believed that this protein is capable of permeating the blood barrier that blocks substances from reaching the brain cells from the blood; hence, it is capable of carrying radioactive iodine to cancerous glioma cells in the brain and of slowing down the growth of tumor.

Among the 18 glioma patients who previously underwent surgery and who were given low dose of the TM-601, eight patients lived a little longer while two lived for three more years. Perhaps after few more studies, this new treatment can already be perfected so it can extend the glioma patients’ life longer.