SYDNEY, June 24: A new cancer treatment pioneered in Australia is to be trialed by six top hospitals in Europe and the United States after being hailed a major breakthrough by a Washington conference.

The therapy has already shown outstanding results in tests on prostate cancer and leukaemia sufferers, it has minimal side effects and it could be available within two years, its developers said on Tuesday.

It fights cancer and, potentially, HIV/AIDS by boosting the body’s immune system to make it produce more of the vital T-cells that produce thymus, the gland which shrinks naturally after puberty.

The therapy is based on an existing class of drugs called GnRH analogues, which are used to block the production of sex hormones in people with prostate cancer, breast cancer and endometriosis.

It was developed by researchers at Melbourne’s Monash University who discovered the GnRH analogues also acted to kick-start the T-cells.

Melbourne-based biotechnology group Norwood Abbey backed the project with a 6.0-million-dollar (4.0 million US) investment and now plans to join forces with a global partner to produce the treatment.

Subject to successful human trials, a treatment should be available within two years, Norwood Abbey said.

It was unveiled on Monday at the US Bio2003 world biotechnology conference by Steve Bracks, premier of the Australian state of Victoria. “This is a world first breakthrough for cancer treatment,” Bracks said from Washington.

Four hospitals in the United States, one in Britain and one in Switzerland have agreed to test it on selected groups of cancer patients in the next year, while Swiss hospitals will test it with HIV/AIDS patients in conjunction with the US National Institutes of Health.

“This new therapy is a huge achievement for bio-tech in this state and it does cement our reputation in medical research,” Victoria’s acting premier John Thwaites told reporters.

It is the second Australian cancer treatment unveiled at Bio2003 by Australian political leaders within two days. Queensland’s state premier Peter Beattie announced a vaccine which has tested successfully to treat the skin cancer, melanoma.

Norwood Abbey executive chairman Peter Hansen said his company was “very, very close”, subject to successful trials, to marketing the therapy.

It involves a world first in reviving the immune system by rejuvenating the thymus and has minimal side effects beyond skin irritations and hot flushes, Hansen said.

The rejuvenation process increases the body’s output of T cells which are the primary defence against cancer and viral infections.

“Too often in the past remarkable Australian research has been lost abroad, along with most of the rewards,” he told a news conference.—AFP