Tamara King's research on cancer pain featured in Bangor Daily News

Research on cancer pain being conducted by Tamara King, Ph.D., assistant professor of biomedical sciences at the Â鶹´«Ã½College of Osteopathic Medicine and the Center for Excellence in the Neurosciences, was the focus of a feature story and video by the Bangor Daily News July 17, 2012.

Most treatments for cancer pain come with side effects nearly as intolerable as the cancer pain. King is engaged in groundbreaking work she hopes will alleviate future cancer patients' pain without the common side effects of opioids, such as nausea and decreased mental acuity.

King has been awarded a two-year grant worth nearly $140,000 by the Maine Cancer Foundation to continue work developing an antibody that could target the interleukin-6 — or IL-6 — molecules responsible in large part for the bone pain felt during cancer and render them inactive.

King said the antibody is being developed to control pain sensations in cancer patients, but Â鶹´«Ã½researchers may discover the drug diminishes or blocks the spread of cancer as well.