Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Biotech / Medical : Sirna Therapeutics Inc -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Scott Ozer who wrote (244)	8/12/1999 2:56:00 PM
From: gao seng	Respond to of 562

I am not affiliated with the analysts, and prefer to do the research on my own instead of relying on them to analyze Multex reports. I have been looking for a follow up to the news story posted below, and RZYM's is the first I have seen. Thursday July 15 1:26 AM ET Blocking Blood Vessels Helps Radiotherapy -Study WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Experimental new drugs that literally starve out tumors can give a big boost to standard radiotherapy, researchers reported Wednesday. The report adds to growing hope that such drugs, known as angiogenesis inhibitors, can boost the cocktail of approaches now used to treat cancer. Dr. Ralph Weichselbaum and colleagues at the University of Chicago and Harvard University had already used angiostatin and endostatin, two natural body proteins being developed as drugs by Maryland-based Entremed Inc. (Nasdaq:ENMD - news), to boost radiotherapy. Writing in the journal Cancer Research, they said they tried a third drug that attacks angiogenesis, called anti-VEGF. ''Despite all the media attention devoted to angiostatin and similar agents, most scientists suspect it's unlikely that, by themselves, these new drugs will have a very dramatic effect on most types of cancer,'' Weichselbaum said in a statement. ''But we have long been certain that radiation therapy works quite well for eradicating relatively small human tumors,'' he added. ''Now we have good reasons to believe that combining radiation with angiogenesis inhibitors can make this well-established treatment significantly more effective, perhaps even against comparatively large tumors, with very little added toxicity.'' Several drugs that affect the growth of blood vessels, a process known as angiogenesis, are being tested against cancer. Many attack one of the compounds that starts this growth, known as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Weichselbaum's team found that tumors produce three to six times more VEGF after they are exposed to radiation. The higher levels last for up to two weeks. It seems the tumors are sprouting new blood vessels to help them recover from the damage done by the radiation therapy. Working in mice, they compared the results of using an anti-VEGF compound, radiation alone, or anti-VEGF plus radiation. The combination worked better than either approach alone in four kinds of tumors -- Lewis lung carcinoma, human squamous cell carcinoma, human esophageal adenocarcinoma and a glioblastoma, which is a kind of brain tumor. ''The antitumor effects were greater than additive,'' the researchers wrote. Even a little anti-VEGF greatly boosted the effects of radiation, they said. ''The combination of anti-VEGF and radiation therapy was much more effective than we might have expected,'' Weichselbaum said. The researchers used an antibody made by R&D Systems of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Several biotechnology companies have drugs or antibodies in the clinical pipeline that work against VEGF, including Genentech, Agouron WLA.N., ImClone Systems Inc. and Sugen Inc. (Nasdaq:SUGN - news

To: Scott Ozer who wrote (244)	8/12/1999 3:25:00 PM
From: gao seng	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 562

Also, I am not a professional writer, so forgive me if I go astray. When a person is diagnosed with cancer, the doctor usually tells them that they can successfully kill almost all cancers. But the problem is the metastases. The article gives insight into the dilemma, and I think that radiation combined with ANGIOZYME just may well be a cure to cancer. The radiation causes the cancer to produce cancer causing compounds. The prevention of this self defense mechanism allows the positive effects of radiation to last. I am somewhat familiar with angiogenesis compounds, and think the theories are interesting. But the identification of VEGF compounds as the method of survival by the cancer is very significant. I also am watching ILXO for further news on this development. Dr W. from the article worked at Convergance, which has been bought out by ILXO. However, this is the first article that says their drug stops METASTASES.