Advances in Cancer Treatment
A recent scientific gathering in North Falmouth, Massachusetts focused on a number of potentially revolutionary advances in treating cancer. Two of the most promising areas of research involved a better understanding of the process of apoptosis (programmed cell death), and changing the way chemotherapy is administered to inhibit the formation of blood vessels in tumors (angiogenesis).
Dr. Peter Brooks of New York University presented the results of his studies of the interaction between various forms of collagen and apoptosis. He was able to make a monoclonal antibody called XL313 that acted against denatured collagen.
After labeling the tumors with a "cell death marker," Brooks noticed that tumor cells undergoing apoptosis (cell death) rarely had the neutralized collagen fragments in close proximity. However, when the denatured collagen was present, the cells did not die at normal rates. He said this added credence to his theory that the collagen somehow protects cancer cells from the normal cellular death process.
Brooks cautioned that additional research is needed to better understand the role that certain collagen compounds play in thwarting normal cell death in cancer cells. However, he suggested that his findings may lead to promising new drug therapies in the coming years.
Giannoula Klement of Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Center in Ontario, Canada reported that the current way of administering chemotherapy may not take full advantage of the drugs' ability to attack the blood vessel formation of tumors (angiogenesis).
Klement believes that the best way to inhibit angiogenesis is to administer lower doses of chemotherapy drugs on a more frequent basis-without periods of rest and for longer periods of time. This new treatment regimen is called "antiangiogenic scheduling" or "metronomic dosing."
Klement believes that this new approach is promising, especially if angiogenesis-inhibiting drugs are added to the chemotherapy mix (combination chemotherapy). However, there is still skepticism among researchers as to the validity of Klement's conclusions, especially given the lack of available evidence from human clinical trials.
Klement noted that a clinical trial is ongoing at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto to study the effect of metronomic chemotherapy in combination with cyclo-oxygenase 2 inhibitors to measure any improved efficacy against tumor blood vessel formation.
SOURCE:
2nd International Conference on Mechanisms of Cell Death and Disease: Advances in Therapeutic Intervention, June 2-6, 2001, North Falmouth, Massachusetts
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