RP inventor wins gold for anti-cancer cream
First posted 03:10am (Mla time) Dec 03, 2005
By Christian V. Esguerra
Inquirer A CREAM locally proven to work against the most common type of skin cancer won a gold medal for a Filipino scientist at the prestigious International Inventor's Forum in Nuremberg, Germany, early in November.
Scientist Rolando de la Cruz bested 54 other inventors worldwide when his "DeBCC" cream, developed from cashew nuts and other local herbs, was chosen over 1,500 entries as the "most significant invention" of the year.
Speaking at a press conference arranged by the Department of Science and Technology yesterday, the 68-year-old inventor said the cream was a simple answer to basal cell carcinoma (BCC), the most common type of skin cancer worldwide.
BCC affects around 800,000 Americans every year, according to the Skin Care Foundation website.
BCC also affects 500,000 Europeans and 190,000 Australians every year, De la Cruz's RCC Amazing Touch company said in a statement.
Dr. Eric Talens, who did the first clinical trials of DeBCC, yesterday said this type of skin cancer was found in 60 percent of Filipinos. He said this estimate was based on statistics from the Philippine General Hospital and other hospitals in the country.
Talens said the disease was common among the elderly owing to their chronic exposure to the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays.
"It doesn't happen instantaneously," he told reporters. "It takes years of exposure to get skin cancer."
He added that lighter-skinned people were more vulnerable to the disease. Darker-skinned individuals have more melanin to protect their skin from ultraviolet rays.
If untreated, skin cancer could disfigure the face, affecting the function of the eyes and nose.
For the trial, Talens, a surgeon with the PGH, treated 14 skin cancer patients using the cream. It was applied to "the very delicate area of the face initially thought of as hopeless by some doctors and rejected by most plastic surgeons," according to a statement by De la Cruz's company.
De la Cruz said the skin cancer patients were cured in 16 weeks with no recurrence even after two years.
"By mere application of the cream, with no radical and unacceptable surgeries or procedures, the patients' skin cancers were cured," the statement said.
"There were no side effects," he added.
The results were submitted to the Germany-based award-giving body, earning the top price for the Philippine-made cream.
De la Cruz said multinational companies from the US, Germany and other European countries had offered to produce DeBCC.
Having completed the required clinical trial, Talens said he and De la Cruz were in the process of securing a certificate from the Bureau of Food and Drugs.
De la Cruz said treatment using DeBCC could range from a minimum of P30,000 to a maximum of P250,000 depending on the size and gravity of the skin cancer.
He said one treatment could last for nine months by applying the cream to the affected portion of the face twice monthly.
The cream is available only at De la Cruz's Amazing Touch clinics in shopping malls.
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