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Article: Scorpion Venom Stings Brain Tumors.
- Article from:
- Insight on the News
- Article date:
- May 10, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 News World Communications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Scorpion venom, nuclear waste and a light-emitting space technology are among the promising new weapons scientists are testing against brain cancer.
Every year, more than 17,000 Americans are diagnosed with various forms of brain cancer. The most fatal brain tumors, called gliomas, account for nearly 40 percent of all brain cancer. Surgery, chemotherapy and radiation have little effect.
"We have guarded optimism that the scorpion treatment will prolong and enhance a patient's life" in glioma cases, says Harold Sontheimer, associate professor of neurobiology at the University of Alabama in Birmingham.
Sontheimer found a protein called chlortoxin ...