VietNamNet Bridge – Viet Nam has the potential to develop and apply bio-technology in cancer treatment, experts say.

Dr Thai D. Nguyen, head of the bio-tech division at the HCM City-based Sai Gon Hi-Tech Park, said mono-clonal technology and dendritic cell technology should be explored for cancer treatment in the country due to their comparatively higher efficiency.

A doctor treats a cancer patient with radiation therapy. Additional types of cancer treatment using biotechnology could expand and improve the quality of cancer treatment. (Photo: VNS)

"Mabs are magic bullets since they target only cancer cells, and are widely used to cure many kinds of cancers in developed countries," Thai said.

His team is now setting up the research facilities at the Park besides tying up with local and foreign collaborators to develop the two technologies.

There are over 20 Mabs commercially available but cost between US$20,000 and $30,000 a year for a cancer patient.

The HCM City-based NanoGen Inc has begun to make more than 10 mabs for the local and international markets, including bevacizumab, rituximab, trastuzumab, and interferon.

Though they are bio-similars of the commercially available Mabs, their production represents a milestone in bio-technology development in Viet Nam.

Thai believes that Viet Nam should develop its own Mabs due to their huge potential to target various forms of tumors.

Mabs can also be used as diagnostic tools for early cancer detection.

But developing Mabs requires a multi-disciplinary approach and large investments and so needs collaborative efforts among bio-tech institutes.

Dendritic cell technology, or DC, is new compared to Mabs but simpler to develop.

It is also safer than other treatments like chemotherapy and radiation since it uses the patient's own cells, and works by enhancing patients' immune system to fight cancers.

In fact, DC for prostate cancer has already been approved in the US and various countries are developing DC for treating different cancers.

Its efficacy is, however, lower than Mabs'.

However, Viet Nam has an advantage since it has the large patient population required to evaluate and improve the efficacy of DC treatment.

The technology is similar to stem-cell technology that is also being developed in Viet Nam.

Other programmes to research into cancer treatment have also been developed in Viet Nam, including at the newly set-up Gene Treatment Institute at Ha Noi's Bach Mai Hospital.

Forging ahead

Thai said the Government's support was important for establishing national bio-tech programmes for cancer research and treatment.

Thai suggested that local drug firms should take a leaf out of the books of developed countries like the US, France, Germany, Japan, and South Korea where various university research laboratories are sponsored by pharmaceutical firms.

Around 80 per cent of drug firms in these countries successfully use bio-technology, according to Thai.

For cancer prevention, Viet Nam should learn from successful models like the hepatitis cancer prevention programmes in South Korea and Taiwan in which gene diagnostics play important roles, reducing the rate of people infected with the liver virus, the main cause of liver cancer, from 10 per cent to just 1 per cent.

It is estimated that Viet Nam will have at least 126,000 new cancer patients by the end of this year. Incidence of the disease is rising mostly as a result of pollution, life styles, and food.

Around 750,000 people died of cancer every year, a Vietnamese expert said.

But a third could be cured and another third would live longer with good treatment, he said.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News