Sandy Hutchens Cancer Prevention

Chinese Medicine Drug May Treat Cancer

A promising cancer drug, first discovered in a mushroom commonly used in Chinese medicine, could be made more effective thanks to researchers who have discovered how the drug works. The research is funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and was carried out at The University of Nottingham.

In research to be published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, Dr Cornelia de Moor of The University of Nottingham and her team have investigated a drug called cordycepin, which was originally extracted from a rare kind of wild mushroom called cordyceps and is now prepared from a cultivated form.

Dr de Moor said: “Our discovery will open up the possibility of investigating the range of different cancers that could be treated with cordycepin. We have also developed a very effective method that can be used to test new, more efficient or more stable versions of the drug in the Petri dish. This is a great advantage as it will allow us to rule out any non-runners before anyone considers testing them in animals.”

Cordyceps is a strange parasitic mushroom that grows on caterpillars (see image). Properties attributed to cordyceps mushroom in Chinese medicine made it interesting to investigate and it has been studied for some time. In fact, the first scientific publication on cordycepin was in 1950. The problem was that although cordycepin was a promising drug, it was quickly degraded in the body. It can now be given with another drug to help combat this, but the side effects of the second drug are a limit to its potential use.

Dr de Moor continued: “Because of technical obstacles and people moving on to other subjects, it’s taken a long time to figure out exactly how cordycepin works on cells. With this knowledge, it will be possible to predict what types of cancers might be sensitive and what other cancer drugs it may effectively combine with. It could also lay the groundwork for the design of new cancer drugs that work on the same principle.”

The team has observed two effects on the cells: at a low dose cordycepin inhibits the uncontrolled growth and division of the cells and at high doses it stops cells from sticking together, which also inhibits growth. Both of these effects probably have the same underlying mechanism, which is that cordycepin interferes with how cells make proteins. At low doses cordycepin interferes with the production of mRNA, the molecule that gives instructions on how to assemble a protein. And at higher doses it has a direct impact on the making of proteins.

Learn about Herbs – Rhodiola and Cordyceps (video)

An experimental cancer drug recently acquired by Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc (ONXX.O) showed promising response rates in patients with relapsed and/or refractory multiple myeloma, according to interim data from a pair of small mid-stage trials.

The studies, presented on Monday at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) meeting in New Orleans, tested carfilzomib given intravenously every 28 days in 73 patients who had not previously been treated with Takeda Pharmaceuticals’ (4502.T) Velcade, and in 33 others following treatment with Velcade.

“These interim results suggest that carfilzomib could benefit patients with multiple myeloma who are no longer responding to current therapies,” Dr. David Siegel, co-investigator of the studies, said in a statement.

Onyx acquired carfilzomib with its purchase last month of Proteolix Inc, saying the drug for multiple myeloma, a blood cancer, has the potential for accelerated U.S. approval in 2011.

Among those who had not received prior Velcade treatment, or Velcade naive patients, carfilzomib led to an overall response rate (ORR) of 46 percent among 54 patients at a 20 milligram dose, and a 53 percent overall response among 19 patients with dose escalation to 27 mg, researchers said.

Patients who were previously treated with Velcade, known chemically as bortezomib, achieved an overall response rate of 18 percent when administered carfilzomib, researchers said.

The Velcade naive patients had relapsed or worsened following other prior therapies.

“While we do not yet model carfilzomib revenue, we do think this agent has real potential for accelerated approval and to establish a meaningful position in the multiple myeloma market based on strong activity and promising side effect profile,” Robert W Baird analyst Chris Raymond said in a research note.

Multiple myeloma results from abnormal plasma cells, usually in the bone marrow. More than 180,000 people are living with the disease worldwide and about 86,000 new cases are diagnosed annually, Onyx said.

Median survival from relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma — when the disease returns and progresses following a response to therapy — can be as short as six to nine months.

In addition to overall response, the Proteolix-sponsored trials looked at secondary goals of time-to-progression and duration of response.

In the Velcade naive group time-to-progression, or the amount of time before the disease worsens, was 7.6 months, and duration of response was 8.4 months.

In the group previously treated with Velcade, interim results showed a time-to-progression of 5.3 months and duration of response of more than 9 months.

“These findings are truly an advance for patients with multiple myeloma,” Dr. Michael Wang, of the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and one of the lead investigators, said.

Noting that other life-extending drugs often have adverse side effects, including severe nerve pain, Wang said “carfilzomib is showing good response rates with an improved side effects profile.”

Treatment with carfilzomib was well tolerated with no unexpected side effects, researchers said.

More than 20 percent of patients were able to complete the full 12 cycles (48 weeks) of therapy in both studies without cumulative side effects, and with low incidence of neuropathy, researchers said.

“These data support our ongoing carfilzomib program in multiple myeloma, a disease that has poor long-term survival,” Michael Kauffman, Onyx’s interim chief medical officer, said in a statement, adding that the company could file its application seeking U.S. approval by the end of 2010.

Onyx shares were off 18 cents or 0.6 percent at $29.59 on the Nasdaq at midday.

Histopathology Bone–Multiple myeloma

Iressa, the lung cancer drug, may be ready to make a comeback: A study concludes it can radically slow the deadly disease better than the standard chemotherapy regimens in certain patients.

The research released Wednesday is the first to show Iressa can be more effective than chemotherapy as a first-line treatment, and some experts are hopeful it will prompt the Food and Drug Administration to allow wide use of the drug, made by AstraZeneca PLC. Others are skeptical. Though the study shows an effect on cancer growth over one year, the drug’s impact on long-term survival is still in question. Also, the study was done in Asia, and the drug seems to work best with specific patients — Asians, women and nonsmokers who carry a specific gene mutation.

“I’d venture to say that additional studies will be requested in the United States population,” said Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, the American Cancer Society’s deputy chief medical officer.

AstraZeneca, which funded the study, is not planning a new push for expanded FDA approval of the drug, a company spokeswoman said. But the company is continuing to share data about the drug with federal health officials, she added.

Iressa is a daily pill that more precisely targets cancer rather than healthy cells. It’s an attractive alternative to standard chemotherapy, which involves trips to a hospital or clinic for infusions of poisonous chemicals that cause nausea and hair loss. In 2003, the FDA approved Iressa as a last-resort treatment for patients with the most common form of lung cancer, called non-small-cell lung cancer. The market was significant: Lung cancer kills more Americans than any other kind of tumor, and the Cancer Society estimates it will cause nearly 160,000 U.S. deaths this year. Non-small-cell lung cancer represents 85 percent of lung cancer cases.

But in 2005, the FDA stopped allowing new patients to go on Iressa after early results from a federally sponsored study failed to show it improved lung cancer patients’ survival rates. Another lung cancer pill, Roche Group’s Tarceva, acts in a way similar to Iressa and remained on the market as a treatment for patients not helped by chemotherapy. There wasn’t widespread outcry at the loss of Iressa because Tarceva remained available, said Dr. Edward Kim, a lung cancer specialist at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

Interest in Iressa continued, though, as doctors have become increasingly interested in personalized approaches to cancer treatment. Studies have shown some drugs work better in certain breast and colon cancer patients than others, and earlier studies have found that Iressa dramatically shrunk tumors in patients who had lung cancers with a specific genetic mutation. That kind of scenario is observed in only a small fraction of U.S. lung cancer patients, but is much more common in Asia, scientists say.

The latest study was led by Dr. Tony Mok of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and involved about 1,200 patients throughout southeast Asia. The study group included the kind of people most likely to have the mutation, said Dr. Pasi Janne, a Dana-Farber Cancer Institute lung cancer specialist.

The study measured cancer growth within a year after treatment, comparing patients who got Iressa to others who got chemotherapy. After one year, 25 percent on Iressa were alive without their cancer getting worse, as compared to 7 percent of those on chemo. Results were even better in those with the mutation. In those without the mutation, chemotherapy was more effective. The study was published online Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine. A second study released by the journal concluded that large-scale screening of lung cancer patients for the genetic mutation is feasible and can lead to wiser treatment.

Cancer Facts : How Does Lung Cancer Develop? embedded by Sandy Hutchens

Lung cancer develops when smoking, air pollutants and free radical formation damages sensitive lung tissue, causing the cellular DNA to restructure and malfunction. Avoid lung cancer by quitting smoking with information from a doctor in this free video on cancer.

Expert: Dr. David Cathcart
Bio: Dr. David Cathcart specializes in occupational medicine and has an in-depth knowledge of cancer, as well as experience dealing with cancer patients and treatment for multiple years.