The FDA approved Alimta yesterday, the first maintenance therapy drug available to treat advanced lung cancer. Patients are often treated with maintenance therapy to prevent the cancer from spreading once the tumor itself is shrunk or has been responsive to chemotherapy. Alimta disrupts the production of B-vitamin folate in certain cells, a necessary ingredient for cell replication.

When asked on his thoughts about Alimta, Dr. Richard Pazdur, MD, and director of the FDA’s Drug Evaluation and Research Office of Oncology Drug Products stated, “This drug represents a new approach in the treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer. Typically, patients whose tumors respond to chemotherapy do not receive further treatment after four-to-six chemotherapy cycles. This study demonstrates an advantage in overall survival in certain patients who received Alimta for maintenance therapy.”

Alimta, manufactured by Eli Lily & Co. of Indianapolis, initially was approved in 2004 for the treatment of patients with mesothelioma, a cancer frequently related to asbestos exposure. The drug was later approved for the treatment of patients with non-small cell lung cancer whose disease worsened on prior chemotherapy drugs and also as an initial therapy for advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

For more information, see the FDA News Release at: http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm170515.htm

Labels: Alimta, cancer, chemotherapy, FDA, maintenance therapy, Mesothelioma

A new method of attacking cancer cells, developed by researchers in Australia, has proved surprisingly effective in animal tests.The method is intended to sidestep two major drawbacks of standard chemotherapy: the treatment's lack of specificity and the fact that cancer cells often develop resistance to treatment.

The new method, called EnGeneIC, uses “minicells” to deliver a variety of agents to tumor cells, including both anti-cancer toxins and mechanisms for suppressing the genes that make tumors resistant to toxins.The “minicells” are generated from mutant bacteria which, each time they divide, pinch off small bubbles of cell membrane. The “minicells” can be loaded with chemicals and coated with antibodies that direct them toward tumor cells.No tumor cell, so far as is known, produces a specific surface molecule for toxins to act on. But 80 percent of solid tumors have their cell surfaces studded with extra-large amounts of the receptor for a particular hormone, known as epidermal growth factor.The “minicells” can be coated with an antibody that recognizes the receptor for epidermal growth factor, so they are more likely to attach themselves to tumors than to the normal cells of the body. The tumor cells engulf and destroy the “minicells”, a standard defense against bacteria, and in doing so are exposed to whatever cargo the “minicells” carry.

In one surprisingly effective test of the method, reported online Sunday in Nature Biotechnology, mice were implanted with a human uterine tumor that was highly aggressive and resistant to many drugs. All of the treated animals were free of tumor cells after 70 days of treatment; the untreated mice were dead after a month.

Dr. Robert M. Hoffman, of the University of California, San Diego, said that the “minicells” were "good strategy and good science" but that the researchers had implanted the human tumors under the mice's skin, a position from which they do not usually spread through the body. So the experiments do not answer the question of whether “minicells” can attack metastasized cancer, he said.

For more information, see the article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch at:
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/nation/story/06651E9B82F1DE8C862575E400075F53?OpenDocument

Labels: animal, cancer, chemotherapy, ENGENEIC, minicells, tumor

A Singapore man undergoing treatment was detained by U.S. immigration officials after the drug he was taking caused his fingerprints to disappear. The man, identified as Mr. S, was eventually allowed to enter the United States after officials determined he did not pose a threat to security.

According to Mr. S’s oncologist, Eng-Huat Tan of the National Cancer Center in Singapore, the patient had neck and head cancer that spread. Although Mr. S responded well to chemotherapy, to prevent a recurrence doctors placed him on Capecitabine, a drug marketed in the United States as Xeloda. One of the side effects of the drug is hand-foot syndrome. It causes the skin o n the hands and feet to peel. Eventually over time, the drug erases fingerprints.

“It is uncertain when the onset of fingerprint loss will take place in susceptible patients who are taking Capecitabine”, Dr. Eng-Huat Tan wrote. “However, it is possible that there may be a growing number of such patients as Mr. S. These patients should prepare adequately before traveling to avert the inconvenience that Mr. S was put through.”

For more information see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8064332.stm

Labels: cancer, chemotherapy, doctors, fingers, Singapore