Dirty-bomb test for terror may aid cancer research

WASHINGTON — With a few drops of blood, scientists are creating a way to tell who has absorbed dangerous radiation levels, part of the government’s preparations against a terror attack, and advance research that just might point toward new cancer care, too.

Duke University’s work aims to allow rapid triage in the aftermath of a dirty bomb explosion or other radiological emergency, to sort out who among potentially thousands of panicked people need treatment for radioactive fallout and who can go home.

At the same time, it illustrates an evolving new approach to developing so-called “medical countermeasures” for defense: They ought to have an everyday use, too.

“There has to be a return on investment from this program in peacetime,” Dr. Nicole Lurie, assistant secretary for preparedness at the Health and Human Services (HHS) Department, said.

At issue: The nation’s stockpile of treatments, vaccines and tests against bioterror and chemical or radiological threats. Saying the arsenal is not growing fast enough, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius ordered a major review of how to jump-start the development of countermeasures.

That process now is spurred by contracts from the federal Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, which helps fund research of promising products, often with guaranteed purchase of a certain amount should the work pan out.

“There are gaps at every stage in the process, from the laboratory to the factory floor, that are slowing or stalling the development of key countermeasures,” Sebelius said in announcing the review.

HHS’ recommendations are expected within three months or so, encompassing areas from industry’s call for more reliable financing to how to prioritize the most urgent needs.

In meetings with scientists and manufacturers, already officials are urging creation of countermeasures with a wider commercial use rather than ones focused solely on potential terrorism, so that more profit-driven companies might sign on to do the work, and so that more people might benefit.

“The dual use is really where my heart is,” says Duke hematology specialist Dr. John Chute, who discovered a genetic signature of radiation exposure detectable in blood within hours, and then won a five-year BARDA contract worth up to $43 million to turn the discovery into an emergency test.

The flip side: That genetic activity, which predicts whether certain vital blood cells live or die, allows study of pathways that might help cancer patients’ battered immune systems regenerate after intense therapy, like the whole-body radiation people undergo before receiving a bone marrow transplant.

“It hits right in our wheelhouse of research,” says Chute, who also has begun animal research with a potential drug to spur growth of blood-forming stem cells after radiation damage.