“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”

Scorpion stings. Deathstalker scorpion kills.

Surgical removal of tumor is the best modern medicine can offer to treat cancer, but it often leaves behind some cancerous cells that make the cancer recur and spread.

However, when the dangerous deathstalker meets with the devastating disease, miraculous healing occurs. How is it possible?

Chlorotoxin, one component of the deathstalker's potent venom, has been discovered to advance gliomas (commonly known as brain tumor) treatment. The chlorotoxin is a type of protein that specifically binds to glial tumor cells while leaving normal cells intact. Scientific investigation shows that the injection of the protein limits cancer spread by keeping abnormal cells from moving and growing. What’s more amazing is that the chlorotoxin lights up cancer cells when combines with a fluorescent molecule. This allows surgeons to distinguish tumor cells during operation to perform more precise surgical elimination. Researchers from Seattle Children's Hospital Research Institute and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have completed pilot safety trails with the chlorotoxin application. If approved by the FDA for permission to begin human clinical trials, deathstalker’s lifesaving venom provides new hope to eradicate cancer cells.

Besides the chlorotoxin, other components of the deathstalker’s venom are found to help regulate insulin, and may be used to treat diabetes. “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” is exactly what the deathstalker scorpion is made of.