John Stamos - Public Service Announcement
Laboratory-Assay Identifies Topotecan as Promising Therapy for Recurrent Breast Cancer.
British Journal of Cancer Reports Novel Finding for Drug Typically Used to Treat Lung and Ovarian Cancers. November 2003.
Long Beach, Calif. – November 3, 2003 - A study published in the November issue of the British Journal of Cancer reports that an ex-vivo laboratory assay based on drug-induced apoptosis (i.e., programmed cell death) has identified a novel Topotecan-based combination as a promising treatment for patients with recurrent breast cancer.
The findings represent an unexpected application for Topotecan (brand name Hycamtin), a drug that is currently used to treat ovarian and small cell lung cancers. The results also support the use of ex-vivo assays to identify previously unrecognized drug combinations for the treatment of advanced malignancies.
The study entitled "Ex Vivo Analysis of Topotecan: Advancing the Application of Laboratory-Based Clinical Therapeutics”, British Journal of Cancer (2003) 89, 1789-1795, was conducted by a team of investigators led by Robert Nagourney, M.D., medical and laboratory director of Rational Therapeutics™ (Long Beach, Calif.) and medical director of the Malcolm C. Todd Cancer Institute at Memorial Medical Center of Long Beach.
In the study, 697 individual human tumor biopsy specimens were tested against Topotecan in combination with a wide variety of other chemotherapy drugs. The tumors represented nearly every known type of cancer.
"Our research team was particularly intrigued by the highly favorable interaction between Topotecan and 5-Fluorouracil in breast cancer specimens," says Dr. Nagourney. "Based on the results, it appears that this previously untested combination may hold promise for the treatment of one of the most common human cancers."
To test this combination's clinical efficacy investigators at the Malcolm C. Todd Cancer Institute in Long Beach have launched a formal Phase II Trial of Topotecan & Capecitabine (brand name Xeloda, an oral formulation of 5-Fluorouracil) in recurrent breast cancer. To qualify, patients cannot have
previously received Capecitabine.
"The Ex-Vivo Apoptotic (EVA-PCD™) Assay developed at Rational Therapeutics™ enables physicians to optimize drug therapies by individualizing treatment regimens," adds Dr. Nagourney. "Another important use of this approach is the identification of new drugs and drug combinations, as illustrated by this latest discovery.”
The principle underlying the EVA-PCD™ assay's success is its capacity to measure drug-induced cancer cell death or apoptosis. This is in stark contrast to earlier laboratory methods that based their measurements on the ability of drugs to inhibit cell growth. While earlier assays consistently failed to provide clinically relevant information, the new cell death measures have been shown to correlate with patient response and survival. These clinically validated assays can identify treatment combinations that might otherwise not have been considered.
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