'Superdrug' conquers cancer
Clinical trial shows promise, causes cells to 'commit suicide'
June 18, 2005
In a clinical trial, a promising new American-made drug demonstrated
an ability to attack cancer cells, with the potential of halting the
disease in patients.
The prototype, tested in Britain, shows promise against a range of
cancers, including breast, prostate, bowel, kidney, ovarian and skin
cancer, reported Medical News Today.
Professor Paul Workman, who led the research at the Royal Marsden
Hospital in London, said it "has the potential to be a superdrug
because it stops resistance and it attacks the cancer on many fronts."
"But it is only a superdrug once we have shown it works in more
patients," he cautioned.
Before the trial, the research team already knew that the drug --
labeled 17AAG -- selectively and potently blocks the growth of a wide
range of common cancer cells in the laboratory, causing them to
"commit suicide."
The research, published Thursday, was funded by Cancer Research UK and
carried out by Institute of Cancer Research scientists at the London
hospital. The drug was provided by the National Cancer Institute in
the U.S. under an agreement with the American biotech company, Kosan
Biosciences Inc.
The drug may be able to tackle cancers that are resistant to other
drugs, according to clinical results in two patients with malignant
melanoma.
Teams in the U.S. are looking at patients with prostate, breast and
kidney cancer.
The drug targets and inactivates a crucial molecule called Hsp90,
which cancer cells need to survive.
Healthy cells, on the other hand, are not seriously affected by their
loss.
At the same time, the drug targets many molecules vital for growth,
including certain proteins. With this multi-pronged attack, the drug
acts like several different treatments, reducing the chance that a
tumour will develop resistance.
"These results, are very early and, although encouraging, much more
work to assess the drug's effect in large numbers of patients still
needs to be done," said professor John Toy, Cancer Research UK's
medical director. "However, what's particularly exciting about this
drug is that it targets so many different features of cancer's
machinery all at once, which should make it much more difficult for
tumours to develop resistance to treatment."
Professor Peter Rigby, chief executive of The Institute of Cancer
Research, said: "This early trial indicates the potential of this drug
for future cancer treatment. Although further trials need to be
conducted, early indications suggest that the multi-pronged attack by
this drug shows promise in treating a range of cancers."
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