ynot
here is one for Mon..
biz.yahoo.com
biz.yahoo.com
And some more...Looks like good pops for MON..
Banchee
DJS Scientists See Hope In New Class Of Cancer Drugs
DJS Scientists See Hope In New Class Of Cancer Drugs
By Robert Langreth, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
ATLANTA -- Researchers presented promising, although preliminary,
results from the first human tests of several new cancer drugs that aim to
target the disease's basic biological causes.
Scientists say the drugs represent a potentially major advance over the
mainstays of cancer treatment: surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. The vast
majority of chemotherapy drugs work indirectly, by poisoning fast-dividing
cells; in the process they kill many normal cells and cause numerous toxic
side effects, including severe nausea. By contrast, the new drugs narrowly
target the genetic and biological drivers of the disease. Researchers are
hopeful they will be far more powerful and far less toxic.
At a cancer meeting here, numerous drug and biotechnology companies
presented data from early clinical safety tests showing that the drugs appear
to be safer than chemotherapy, although certainly not without side effects.
While many of these early studies weren't designed to evaluate efficacy, some
of the drugs showed glimmers of effectiveness. In several instances, they
helped stabilize or reduce tumors in patients with very advanced cases, for
significant periods of time.
Top cancer scientists said it's far too early to tell whether any of
the drugs will work. Much larger and longer-term trials are needed. But they
said that there are so many powerful new approaches going into human testing
that some will almost certainly succeed.
"I can't imagine we aren't going to be making spectacular successes in
the next 10 years," said Larry Norton, head of solid tumor oncology at
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York.
Several companies presented results of early-stage tests of a new class
of agents that aims to block a protein called EGF receptor, which is
overabundant in many cancers and helps drive the growth of the cancer cells.
In one small study, oncologists tested a drug called C225, being
developed by ImClone Systems Inc., on patients with inoperable head and neck
tumors. In combination with radiation, the medication was able to partly or
completely eradicate tumors in all 15 patients. This compares with as much as
a 50% response rate that would have been expected with radiation alone.
ImClone has moved into much larger studies to confirm the drug's potential in
a variety of tumors.
While ImClone's drug is an antibody that must be injected, AstraZeneca
PLC and Pfizer Inc. are racing to test oral drugs, which would be more
convenient, against EGF. Another new class of drugs being tested by other
companies aims to block the effects of a gene called "ras," which is mutated
in many cancers. A third class of promising medications in early human tests
at Sugen Inc. and other companies attempts to stop a tumor's ability to make
blood vessels.
In one unusual approach to blocking new blood vessels in tumors,
University of Southern California researchers used a blood-vessel inhibiting
drug taken through nose drops by patients with Kaposi's sarcoma, a skin cancer
that often occurs in AIDS. The drug, IM862, significantly reduced tumors in
37% of 35 patients tested and is now in larger-scale tests.
Separately, researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering presented new data
from a large clinical trial confirming that advanced breast-cancer patients
who received Genentech Inc.'s new drug Herceptin in combination with
chemotherapy survived on average five months longer than those who received
chemotherapy alone. Herceptin targets a protein, Her-2, that is overabundant
in many breast-cancer cases.
Copyright (c) 1999 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
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