APOPTOTIC AND ANTI-ANGIOGENIC THERAPIES HAVE PROVEN TO WORK

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APOPTOTIC AND ANTI-ANGIOGENIC THERAPIES HAVE PROVEN TO WORK
01 June 2007 - American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)

American researchers have discoverd that a combination of a drug that induces cell death (apoptosis) and imantanib (Glivec1) has returned an improved performance at proventing the growth of Ewing's sarcoma in mice than either therapy on its own.

Imantanib works by preventing the creation of new blood vessels to supply the growing tumour (antiangiogenesis) and the researchers believe that this is the first report of synergy between apoptosis and antiangiogenic therapy in pre-clinical work.

Professor Andrea Hayes-Jordan reported to the EORTC-NCI-AACR2 Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics in Prague that treating sarcoma cells with imantanib inhibited a growth factor called PDGFR-beta. This had the effect of increasing the sensitivity of the cells to a drug called tumour necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand.

Prof. Hayes-Jordan, assistant professor of surgery and pediatrics at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, USA, said: 'When I treated the tumour cells with imantanib, the anti-angiogenic drug, the receptors for TRAIL, the apoptotic drug, increased, thus increasing the efficacy of TRAIL. This was supported by the mouse studies, which showed increased inhibition of pulmonary metastases and primary tumour growth when both were used simultaneously. These findings are important because, if it proves to be effective in humans, it would be well tolerated and have significantly fewer side effects than traditional cytotoxic therapy. Also, at present, we have no effective chemotherapy for pulmonary metastases, the only effective treatment is surgery, so this would give us another option.' Prof. Hayes-Jordan hopes to investigate the dual therapy in humans in a clinical trial within 12-18 months.

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About: American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
The American Association for Cancer Research is a professional society of more than 24,000 laboratory and clinical scientists engaged in basic, translational, and clinical cancer research in the United States and more than 60 other countries. Founded in 1907, the AACR has as its mission to accelerate the prevention and cure of cancer through research, education, communication, collaboration and advocacy. Among the means to that end, the association publishes five major peer-reviewed scientific journals: Cancer Research – the most frequently cited cancer journal in the world – as well as Clinical Cancer Research; Molecular Cancer Therapeutics; Molecular Cancer Research; and Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

The AACR convenes an Annual Meeting attended by more than 15,000 scientists from around the world who share new and significant discoveries in the cancer field. Specialty meetings throughout the year focus on all the important areas of basic, translational and clinical cancer research.

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