ENMD:
Have seen a lot of rumors on SI as well as in mass media. Some of them are "misunderstanding" at best.
The best source of information is, as usual, original scientific papers.
Next would be press releases from organizations involved:
(you definitely have seen these links before):
Children's Hospital, Boston
Information about Dr. Judah Folkman's
Angiostatin and Endostatin Research:
childrenshospital.org./
Natnl. Cancer Institute
Questions And Answers About Anti-Angiogenesis Research
207.121.187.155
If you would like to read something from journalist, I would recommend Science mag.
At least they are asking questions to the right people.
You will find several pieces from Science below:
Science,Volume 280, Number 5366 Issue of 15 May 1998, p 997
The Roadblocks to Angiogenesis Blockers
Eliot Marshall
Like many experts on cancer drugs, Edward Sausville, the National Cancer Institute's (NCI's)
associate director for developmental therapeutics, was surprised by the heated speculation last
week over angiostatin and endostatin. It's been 11 months since NCI signed an agreement with
a small company to explore the clinical uses of these two natural proteins, which block the
development of new blood vessels, such as those that nourish cancers. But as Sausville notes,
"from a pharmacological perspective, this research is just beginning."
Folkman's note says, is that "at this time, it is not possible to produce the large quantities of
endostatin or angiostatin necessary for human trials." His lab has cloned the genes for the two
proteins, but Sausville says NCI is still evaluating several biological vectors--yeast or other
organisms that would be equipped with the human genes to mass-produce these proteins.
Other researchers in the field of antiangiogenesis, meanwhile, sought to draw attention last
week to their own products--some of which are more fully developed than angiostatin or
endostatin. At least 300 of these substances are being explored by more than 100 labs in this
field, says William Li, medical director of the Angiogenesis Foundation in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, a clinical data clearinghouse. Li says that more than 20 of these products have
begun clinical testing, and at least three have entered phase III (the final stage) of clinical trials.
Science,Volume 280, Number 5366 Issue of 15 May 1998, pp. 996 - 997
The Power of the Front Page of The New York Times
Eliot Marshall
"The episode began at a dinner last March. Included among the guests at a
conference on gene therapy in Los Angeles were veteran Times reporter Gina Kolata and James
Watson.... By her own account, Kolata turned to Watson during dinner and asked something like:
"What's new and important in cancer research?"
Watson - whose unguarded comments have gotten him in hot water before - responded by
talking about the buzz among cancer researchers over experiments by Judah Folkman."
Watson says he was unaware that his dinnertime comments were
going to be quoted and was "horrified" when they were.
"Leaving the accuracy of the quotes aside, many journalists were still puzzled by the Times'
decision to give Folkman's research so much play last week. The paper itself had already covered
Folkman's latest results from treating cancerous mice, which formed the basis of Kolata's article.
On 27 November 1997, a story by Times reporter Nicholas Wade summed up data in a Nature
paper by Folkman on those treatments and described other encouraging results with
endostatin. The article quoted an expert in the field saying that the results were
"unprecedented" and "could herald a new era of cancer treatment." A second, longer profile by
Wade on 9 December described Folkman's 30-year search for drugs that stop the growth of
blood vessels, noting that his pioneering work had encouraged more than 100 laboratories to
follow this path.
"Kolata herself says she was "shocked" and "stunned" by the explosive reaction the story
triggered."
"effect was explosive. The Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, for example,
was "flooded with calls," says its president, Paul Marks.
"We even had patients calling us to say they didn't want to start their chemotherapy-
that they wanted to wait for the new drugs."
Finally, piece from this week Science: history of another approach to treat cancer:
CANCER THERAPY:
Antibodies Stage a Comeback in Cancer Treatment
Steven Dickman
As investors in new cancer therapies ought to know, the history of cancer research is rife with
reports of cancer "cures" that all too often turn out to be ephemeral. In 1982, for example,
immunologist Ron Levy of Stanford Medical Center raised the hopes of many when he reported
in The New England Journal of Medicine that he had vanquished cancer in a patient, Philip Karr,
using antibodies custom-designed to attack Karr's own lymphoma cells. In the wake of the
resulting optimism, Levy co-founded IDEC Pharmaceuticals to commercialize his discovery, and
other white-hot biotech companies pounced on the idea too. Expectations--and stock
values--soared. "It was assumed [that antibodies] would be the final answer, that we could just
produce them and the rest of cancer research could close up shop," recalls radiation oncologist
Alan Lichter of the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor, who is president of the
American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).
Then, in an object lesson in the dangers of hyping cancer therapies, hopes--and stock
values--shriveled. Although Levy's antibody worked, the effects of other antibodies in humans
didn't match those in mice, and unexpected toxicity even killed patients, bringing clinical trials
to an abrupt halt. Antibodies vanished from page one, and many firms abandoned them.
But now, after a decade and a half of hard work, the tide may be turning again. |
