i think this is responsible for VICL weakness last 2 days but not sure how it affects them.
New Cancer Therapy From Onyx
Shows Promise Against Tumors
By LAURA JOHANNES
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
An unusual new cancer therapy from Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc., given in combination with chemotherapy, appeared effective in shrinking seemingly incurable tumors of the head and neck.
The results, published in this month's issue of the journal Nature Medicine, are unusual in that the benefits appear to last longer than in previous tests of Onyx's therapy alone.
Onyx, of Richmond, Calif., is one of a growing number of companies seeing promising results in tests of genetically engineered cancer therapies. The treatment, called Onyx-015, is a virus designed to leave normal cells alone while killing cells that lack an intact version of p53, a gene commonly missing or damaged in cancer. While Onyx-015 is not gene therapy in the traditional sense of replacing damaged genes, the therapy makes use of growing knowledge about cancer genes.
The recent results were published by an international team led by the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Of 30 patients, 25, or about 83%, saw some kind of shrinkage. Nineteen, or 63% of the total, saw their tumors shrink by more than half -- the standard criteria for a "response."
Moreover, none of the 19 tumors that responded to the therapy have begun growing again. The patients have been followed for a median of five months. "There have been successes before, but the cancer has recurred," said W. French Anderson, director of the Gene Therapy laboratories at the University of Southern California at Los Angeles. "What's significant here is that it doesn't seem to be coming back."
Onyx is testing the therapy in a variety of different types of cancers. In the trial, the most common side effects included pain at the injection site. Other problems reported during the study included kidney failure and fainting, but researchers do not believe those events were caused by the therapy. |
