Tuesday, June 19, HealthDay News)-giving four weeks of a specific drug before chemotherapy improved response rates in a small group of patients with advanced pancreatic cancer, report researchers at the University of Michigan.
The results are "very, very preliminary", said Dr. Jay Brooks, Chairman of Hematology and Oncology at the Ochsner of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, health system but you can show "a minimum of at least progress in the understanding of the biology of the disease. Pancreatic cancer is incredibly difficult to treat cancer".
The findings were presented Tuesday during a press conference at the American Association for the Conference on cancer research on cancer of the pancreas in Lake Tahoe, Nevada
The drug, GDC-0449, directs the signaling pathway Sonic Hedgehog, which lights up when cancer is present.
Activation of the pathway seems to contribute to the healing characteristics of pancreatic cancer, which makes it more difficult for chemotherapy drugs penetrate and do their job.
The hypothesis of the researchers who giving GDC-0449 before chemotherapy can improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy and its initial results indicate that it may be the case.
GDC is already used for basal cell carcinoma advanced under the name of Erivedge (vismodegib).
Twenty-one patients with previously untreated metastatic pancreatic cancer received four weeks of GDC, given in pill form once a day, and then chemotherapy with the drug Gemcitabine.
Biopsies taken both before the GDC and three weeks later showed reduction of the tumor in five patients, while other four patients achieved disease «stable», which means that the tumor was not declining or growing.
The drug was most effective in patients who initially had high levels of expression of Hedgehog.
Hedgehog levels are especially high in cancer cells. Is human trafficking, "a subset of cells identified in many cancers, including cancer of the pancreas, which is believed not only to boost the growth of tumor but that are also particularly resistant to standard chemotherapy and radiation therapies," explained the study author Dr. Edward Kim, a medical oncologist at the cancer center integral of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
"I think this trial here is a step back in the right direction to find exactly what is happening. I would say that reading the summary response rate was very high. It means that you would normally see a 5 or 9% chance of getting a response to Gemcitabine, and here in this situation I think that at least 23 percent, 25 percent, "said the President of the Conference Dr. Daniel Von Hoff, medical Chief and distinguished professor at the Translational Genomics Research Institute and Professor of medicine at the clinic Mayo in Rochester"", Minn. "went beyond what would normally be expected".
"I'm very interested in seeing the final outcome of this," said Von Hoff. "The good news is that these inhibitors of Hedgehog does not add any substantial toxicity any".
A second study presented at the Conference, this one done in mice, found a protein which makes cells to stubbornly refuse to respond to the treatment of pancreatic cancer.
Blocking the protein, known as RLIP76, in mice with cancer of the pancreas to "complete regression" in tumors, said the lead author of the study Dr. Sanjay Awasthi, Professor of medical oncology Endocrinology and therapeutic research and diabetes and metabolism at the city of Hope Cancer Center in Duarte, California.
RLIP76 transports chemicals killer of chemotherapy drugs and radiation out cells until they can do their job. It tends to be more RLIP76 in cancer cells of the pancreas that in human cells healthy.
Beating later RLIP76 levels also seemed have antidiabetic effects, as these mice showed decreases in the blood sugar, cholesterol and triglycerides.
Awasthi said that he and his colleagues expect to move forward with this molecule, possibly as a medicine against diabetes and cancer to.
Awasthi is the founder of Terapio, the company that manufactures the RLIP76 recombinant protein to treat poisoning by radiation. Terapio is not involved with any application of the protein to treat cancer.
Papers presented at medical meetings normally are considered preliminary until published in a magazine.
More information
The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more about cancer of the pancreas.
SOURCES: Dr. Jay Brooks, Chairman of Hematology / Oncology, Ochsner, Baton Rouge, Louisiana; health system May 19, 2012, the press conference with medical oncologist Edward Kim, M.D., Ph.d., centro integral de cancer the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan; Sanjay Awasthi, M.D., Professor, medical oncology and therapeutic research and diabetes, Endocrinology and metabolism, city of Hope Cancer Center, Duarte, California; Daniel D. Von Hoff, M.D., physician in Chief and distinguished Professor, Institute of Translational Genomics Research and Professor of medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.
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