Reporter Natasha Kirtchuk describes the new prostate cancer treatment developed by the Weizmann Institute’s Profs. Avigdor Scherz and Yoram Salomon, along with an extended team of scientists, researchers, oncologists, urologists, clinicians, technicians, and more. The therapy involves no radiation or chemotherapy, takes just 90 minutes to complete, and … has no side effects! The treatment involves a localized, chlorophyll-based drug called TOOKAD, which is then “lit up” in the tumor by lasers – a combination that targets the cancer very precisely while limiting destruction to just the cancer, not healthy surrounding tissue.
Team member Dr. Jack Baniel, head of the prostate cancer center at the Ramat Aviv Medical Center, has conducted the procedure several times. He says of the Weizmann method, “we’ve been searching ages, especially in prostate cancer,” for such a treatment.
