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Biotech / Medical : Biotech Valuation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: EdR who wrote (20702)	7/31/2006 8:04:27 PM
From: Bio-Newbie	Respond to of 52153

Ed, I'm sorry that your cancer is back. I understand that your Docs say no more radiation but I still can't help wonder if there are radiation options that can get you treatment without being more than you can take. For example, fractionated treatment allows healthy cells to partially recover between treatments so the radiation does less damage in the area around the tumor. Fractions can be done with gamma knife, cyber-knife, and probably other delivery systems (I'm not a Doc or a scientist but I had fractionated treatment via cyber-knife a few years back). Good luck. BN

To: EdR who wrote (20702)	7/31/2006 9:39:36 PM
From: zeta1961	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 52153

Ed, I too am sorry to hear about the mets..I despise cancer..I'd recently been thinking about you when my sister finished her last bag of 5fu.. There are studies being done with radiosensitizers but their coupled with radiation.. Myriad(disclosure, I have a position) has a Phase 1 study with a molecule called MPC-6827 or Azixa..Rick is much better versed in this one but quickly: it's chemo and not radiation; according to preclinicals, it has much greater blood brain barrier penetration which as ýou know is the crucial issue with treating brain lesions..Last I heard(January JPMorgan), they'd not reached the MTD yet..The docs at M.D. Anderson and NY-Cornell are enrolling patients..if I had to make your decision or advise, this first place I'd explore..I'd want to know they'd advanced the dosing.. It is a program that I have been excited about watching mature..yet I have no idea how the patients dosed so far are doing regards efficacy(except in January, no grade 3 SAE's)..perhaps Rick and others over at the Myriad thread have more up-to-date information.. I'll do some more digging and pass it on.. Elisabeth

To: EdR who wrote (20702)	7/31/2006 10:03:13 PM
From: zeta1961	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 52153

Avastin/Irinotecan..they had a 63% response rate in heavily treated GBM..I'd only heard anecdotal reports of avastin helping individual patients..I take what I said back..since these two are known re:MOA/SE's, I'd take a look at these first.. Abstract No: 1506 Citation: Journal of Clinical Oncology, 2006 ASCO Annual Meeting Proceedings Part I. Vol 24, No. 18S (June 20 Supplement), 2006: 1506 Author(s): J. J. Vredenburgh, A. Desjardins, J. E. Herndon, J. Quinn, J. Rich, S. Sathornsumetee, H. S. Friedman, D. Reardon, S. Gururangan, A. Friedman Abstract: Background: The prognosis for recurrent malignant gliomas is poor, with a median survival <12 months, median progression-free survival <12 weeks and response rates <20%. Malignant gliomas have high concentrations of VEGF receptors, and the higher the VEGF receptor concentration, the worse the prognosis. Bevacizumab is a humanized IgG1 monoclonal antiblody to VEGF, which is synergistic with chemotherapy for most malignancies. Irinotecan is a topoisomerase 1 inhibitor, and has modest activity against recurrent malignant gliomas. Methods: We report a FDA approved phase II trial of bevacizumab and irinotecan for the treatment of recurrent malignant gliomas. 32 patients were enrolled, 23 with grade IV tumors (glioblastoma multiforme) and 9 with grade III tumors (anaplastic astrocytomas or oligodendrogliomas). All the patients had progressive disease and every patient had received prior radiation therapy and chemotherapy. Patients were treated every other week with bevacizumab 10 mg/kg and irinotecan 125 mg/m2 for patients not taking enzyme inducing anti-epileptic drugs or 340 mg/m2 for patients taking enzyme inducing anti-epileptic drugs. Results: The regimen was well tolerated with no CNS hemorrhages or >grade 1 systemic hemorrhages. Four patients were taken off study for thrombotic complications, 2 pulmonary emboli, 1 deep venous thrombus, and one thrombotic stroke. Two patients were discontinued secondary to grade 2 proteinuria and three were discontinued because they required non-neurosurgical surgery, appendectomy, repair of anal fissures and hip stabilization. The response rate was 63% (19 PRs and 1 CR). The median progression-free survival is 24 weeks. The median overall survival has not been reached, and exceeds 6 months. There have been ten deaths due to disease progression. Conclusions: The combination of bevacizumab and irinotecan is safe and one of the most active regimens against malignant gliomas.