David revolutionises cancer treatment

AN Oldham-born scientist who started his career helping manufacturers to make better dyes was inspired by his mum to revolutionise cancer treatment.

Reporter Karen Doherty found out more from David Needham, professor of mechanical engineering and materials at Duke University, North Carolina.

DAVID Needham was just 19 when he received the news that every son dreads.

Mum Audrey had been diagnosed with breast cancer and had to undergo a mastectomy. But her treatment sparked an interest in how tumours start for the former Counthill Grammar School pupil.

He embarked on an odyssey which has seen him invent a capsule which smuggles the anticancer drug doxorubicin into a tumour without being destroyed by the immune system. Described by David (55) as “soccer balls whose stitching melts at the correct temperature”, these Trojan horses are liposomes 100th the size of a human hair. Injected into the bloodstream, they travel through the blood vessels and rapidly deliver the drug directly on to the tumour when it is gently heated.

After promising tests, clinical trials are underway on liver and breast cancer patients thanks an $18 million programme by the oncology drug development company Celsion. The treatment, whose commercial name is ThermoDox, was described as nothing less than “ingenious and elegant” by Celsion president Michael Tardugno who added: “We expect the value of David’s invention will ultimately be reflected through the clinical and commercial success of ThermoDox.”

It could be available by 2011 and David explained how he was inspired by his mum’s diagnosis.

“I think the option was mastectomy. There really wasn’t an advanced chemotherapy treatment then,” he said.

“Chemotherapy is really less effective than this because it goes everywhere and is toxic. The goal was to reduce toxicity while not reducing efficacy.”

David, whose brother Stuart is manager of Community Transport Oldham, attended Clarksfield infant and junior schools, but admitted he was more interested in playing the cornet and drums than science when he was young.

“The idea was if you wanted to get a job, science and engineering might be a good place to focus, though I was always good at art and the creative side of things.

“Recently I did an on-line questionnaire about which job you are suited for. I came up with a large creative circle and a smaller analytical circle.

“The job was an architect. Whether you are an architect of buildings or an architect of drug delivery systems it uses the same talents.”

An applied chemistry course at Trent Polytechnic, Nottingham, followed, combining industrial training with work, and then a spell washing dishes in a Spanish hotel.

But his mum told him to come home and get a job, and his research skills were then evident at Manox pigments in Manchester: “I went there as a lab technician. Within the matter of a few weeks I was walking round the plant finding problems that needed to be solved and I ended up doing some industrial research.”

David then did a PHD in physical chemistry at Nottingham University and his post doctorate work took him to Cambridge, Vancouver and then Duke in 1987.

Having originally planned to work in chemical engineering, he is now a materials scientist and engineer who draws his inspiration from biology.

A keen darts player with the team Darty Old Men, he has created a training programme to help players perfect their throw and is also a drummer with the band Down By Avalon. But he still returns to Oldham two or three times a year and enjoys walking around Saddleworth.

His mum, who raised £600 for the Genesis Prevention Centre at Wythenshawe, Europe’s first purpose built cancer prevention centre, went on to beat cancer a second time and David added: “Last year I gave a talk at Christie.

“That was a nice full circle thing because I got to give a talk on cancer treatment at the place where she was treated.”

Sadly, Audrey lost husband Bert to Hodgkinson’s disease and she said: “I am very proud of David. I just keep saying to him ‘get it done, get it done’, and he has. If anything can help people with cancer it is hope.”