Dr.Christopher R. Chitambar, MD | Professor of Medicine and Biophysics | Division of Hematology and Oncology | Medical College of Wisconsin explains how cancer cells are killed by Gallium Maltolate.
This is the trial of an agent that most people have not heard of. It’s called Gallium Maltolate. In the late 60s to early 70s, the Oakridge group was looking at radioisotopes for imaging purposes. They were looking at ways to image tumors and were experimenting by injecting lab animals with Gallium-67 a radioisotope. They found that Gallium-67 is concentrated and localized in tumors. That was the beginning of Gallium scans which is now been replaced by more modern-day imaging technologies. In many parts of the world, the Gallium scan is still being used to image tumors. In the 70s, when this imaging technology picked up steam, it was tested in a lot of tumors and went very quickly into application in humans.