Ethanol-Based Cancer Treatments

Researchers from Duke University have achieved a 100 percent cure rate for squamous cell carcinoma in a hamster model by injecting an ethanol-based gel directly into tumors. The work, published in Nature Scientific Reports, was inspired by an existing low-cost therapy called ethanol ablation, and improves the method to work on a wider variety of tumors.

Ethanol — the kind of alcohol that makes cocktails interesting — can kill some kinds of tumors when injected because it destroys proteins and fatally dehydrates cells, in a process called ethanol ablation. Ethanol ablation is already used to treat one variety of liver cancer, with a cost of less than $5 per treatment and a success rate similar to that of surgery.

However, ethanol ablation as a treatment technique is limited. The researchers sought to improve the technique by blending ethanol with ethyl cellulose to create a solution that transforms into a gel within tumors, remaining close to the injection site.

The team trialed the gel on a hamster model: specifically, in hamsters with oral squamous cell carcinoma. Control hamsters’ tumors were injected with pure ethanol, while experimental hamsters received the new ethanol gel. After seven days, 6 of 7 tumors regressed completely in the hamsters who received the ethanol gel. By the eighth day, all 7 tumors were gone, for a cure rate of 100 percent.