Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

i need an answer as quick as possible for my grades depend here.I have a suspected liquid that can possibly cure cancer. But how can i test if it can really cure cancer?
What should i do?

Hi,

Great question. A lot of work is done in this area, for every chemical we think might work - by companies that specialize in this. Think about what it means to "cure cancer", though. Not only does the chemical have to KILL THE CANCER CELLS and NOT the good cells, but we have to be able to get the chemical to the right place in the body. If you break this into a few pieces, you can answer the initial parts more easily since human testing isn't needed.

First, we want to know if the chemical can kill cancer cells and not normal cells. I did a lot of this work in college - we use cell culture, of normal cells and cancer cells (different kinds), and tested the drugs at different concentrations. A chemical drug was a good candidate for further testing if is could kill >90% cancer cells at a reasonable dose without causing any toxicity to the normal cells. You need a tissue culture lab to do this work.

It isn't the same as curing cancer, but this is the first step.

Does that help?

Kindly,
Tonya