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 : Ligand (LGND) Breakout! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hippieslayer who wrote (11966)	12/2/1997 10:01:00 AM
From: Henry Niman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32384

FUDAZI, The 25 centers in the US and Canada have been listed at Centerwatch for some time now: centerwatch.com Did the letter request more North American sites or was it just looking for Europe and Australia? Several European and Australian sites were used for the International Phase III trial for topical Panretn (for KS).

To: Hippieslayer who wrote (11966)	12/2/1997 10:05:00 AM
From: Henry Niman	Respond to of 32384

NCI lists 26 sites in North America for one of the CTCL oral Targretin trials: cancernet.nci.nih.gov They list 27 sites for the other CTCL oral Targretin trial: cancernet.nci.nih.gov They lists 23 of the North American sites for topical Targretin: A. Robert Turner, Principal Investigator, Ph: 403-432-8717 Cross Cancer Institute Edmonton, Alberta, Canada David McLean, Principal Investigator, Ph: 604-228-2421 University of British Columbia Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Glenn Jones, Principal Investigator, Ph: 905-387-9495 Ontario Cancer Treatment and Research Foundation-Hamilton Regional Cancer Centre Hamilton, Ontario, Canada Daniel Sauder, Principal Investigator, Ph: 416-480-4767 Sunnybrook Health Science Centre North York, Ontario, Canada Lauren C. Pinter-Brown, Principal Investigator, Ph: 818-364-3205 Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, UCLA Los Angeles, California, USA Marilyn Mehlmauer, Principal Investigator Office of Marilyn Mehlmauer Pasadena, California, USA Nicholas Lowe, Principal Investigator Office of Nicholas Lowe Santa Monica, California, USA Mohammed Kashani-Sabet, Principal Investigator, Ph: 415-885-7837 UCSF/Mt. Zion Cancer Center San Francisco, California, USA John Aeling, Principal Investigator, Ph: 315-270-3007 University of Colorado Cancer Center Denver, Colorado, USA Peter Heald, Principal Investigator, Ph: 203-785-6370 Yale Comprehensive Cancer Center New Haven, Connecticut, USA Michael Tharp, Principal Investigator, Ph: 312-942-5000 Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center Chicago, Illinois, USA Lawrence Millikan, Principal Investigator, Ph: 504-588-5355 Tulane University School of Medicine New Orleans, Louisiana, USA David P. Fivenson, Principal Investigator, Ph: 313-876-2972 Henry Ford Hospital Detroit, Michigan, USA Glen Bowen, Principal Investigator, Ph: 313-936-4190 University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA Rokea el-Azhary, Principal Investigator, Ph: 507-284-2758 Mayo Clinical Cancer Center Rochester, Minnesota, USA Ann G. Martin, Principal Investigator, Ph: 304-362-2643 Washington University School of Medicine Saint Louis, Missouri, USA Zale Bernstein, Principal Investigator, Ph: 716-845-8075 Roswell Park Cancer Institute Buffalo, New York, USA Anthony Gaspari, Principal Investigator, Ph: 716-275-4651 University of Rochester Cancer Center Rochester, New York, USA Elise Olsen, Principal Investigator, Ph: 919-419-5816 Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center Durham, North Carolina, USA Debra L. Breneman, Principal Investigator, Ph: 513-558-6235 Barrett Cancer Center Cincinnati, Ohio, USA Craig A. Elmets, Principal Investigator, Ph: 205-934-5189 Case Western Reserve University/Ireland Cancer Center Cleveland, Ohio, USA Jennie Muglia, Principal Investigator, Ph: 401-444-4000 Rhode Island Hospital Providence, Rhode Island, USA Madeleine D. Duvic, Principal Investigator, Ph: 713-792-5115 ext. 1158 University of Texas - M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Houston, Texas, USA

To: Hippieslayer who wrote (11966)	12/2/1997 10:53:00 AM
From: squetch	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32384

Thanks FUGAZI. Did the say why they are expanding the study? Are they having trouble w/ recruitment in North America? Was there anything in the abstract? squetch

To: Hippieslayer who wrote (11966)	12/3/1997 12:10:00 PM
From: Henry Niman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32384

LGND's neighbor, IDPH, is getting some good press for their monoclonal: by Stephen Hart ABCNEWS.com For more than 20 years, scientists have sought a way to use the body's own disease-fighting chemicals as medicine, especially against cancer. In late November, they passed a major milestone in their quest, when the Food and Drug Administration approved a new drug called Rituxan for the treatment of one type of cancer. Generically known as rituximab, Rituxan is the first cancer therapy based on naturally occurring immune proteins-so-called monoclonal antibodies. In an ironic twist, the drug acts specifically on non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a cancer affecting the very cells that produce antibodies, the white blood cells called B cells that are found in lymph nodes. In non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, B cells can become malignant and form tumors in lymph nodes. Because these cells circulate in the blood, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma rarely occurs as a single tumor in one lymph node, and often affects a number of nodes and the spleen or liver. In the United States, about 240,000 people have non-Hodgkin's lymphoma; most are over age 50. Some non-Hodgkin's lymphomas grow quickly, killing patients within weeks. Rituxan has been tested only on people with a slow-growing form of the cancer. Designer Tumor Fighters The search for a monoclonal antibody cancer treatment began in the 1970s. The researchers working on the idea knew that healthy B cells produce proteins called antibodies in response to a foreign substance, or antigen, entering the blood. They also knew that when a single B cell encounters an antigen, it multiplies to form a clone of itself. Essentially, these B cell clones work as antibody factories distributed throughout the body. They react only with the one antigen, sticking to it whether it occurs in the blood or on the surface of a cell. Scientists grew B-cell clones specific to a certain antigen by injecting tumor cells into mice, who produced antibodies to those specific cells. The lofty goal of this process was to produce designer medicines -called monoclonal antibodies-for many diseases. Practical Problems It was a great idea, says Brian Link, a specialist in monoclonal antibody therapy at the University of Iowa and a member of the team that investigated Rituxan. "It was initially thought then, that's fine, that'll be easy, all we need to do is make a whole host of monoclonal antibodies against these various cancer targets and away we'll go," says Link. But because the early experimental monoclonal antibodies came from mice, human patients' immune systems attacked the mouse antibodies as foreign. Still, says Link, researchers "thought that the problems could be overcome if they could figure out a way to convert most of the antibody molecule to a human framework. That line of inquiry eventually led to Rituxan. "The vast majority of Rituxan," Link explains, "is a human antibody framework with just small amounts of mouse protein cloned in." The Progress of Cancer Treatment Surgery The earliest record of surgical cancer treatment dates to the time of Aristotle, some 300 years B.C. Effective cancer surgery-beginning with mastectomies-began in the late 1800s after the advent of anesthesia. Lasers and other high-tech tools now allow surgeons to remove cancers while sparing a breast or limb, for example. Radiation Radiation treatment debuted soon after Wilhelm Konrad Roentgen discovered X-rays in 1898. X-rays penetrate tissue poorly, however, burning skin before killing deep cancer cells. But modern radiation uses tightly focused, high-energy beams to precisely target tumors deep in the body. Chemotherapy German physician/chemist Paul Ehrlich introduced the first chemical therapy-for syphilis-in 1908, coining the term "magic bullet." Cancer chemo began in the 1940s. Today some three dozen chemicals are used as anticancer agents. None are magic bullets; they all attack any growing cells, cancerous or healthy. Immunotherapy Experimental immunotherapy debuted in the early 1970s. Technically a form of chemotherapy, immunotherapy targets specific types of cells, rather than all growing cells. Rituxan is the first such agent approved by the FDA for cancer. Direct Attack By the 1980s, researchers had figured out how to fool a patient's immune system into accepting a monoclonal antibody, using genetic engineering. But they were still only part of the way to an effective therapy, says David G. Maloney of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington in Seattle. Maloney's involvement began with the first patient to receive Rituxan in the earliest trials. "In those days,"he says, "we were actually making custom antibodies for each patient's tumor. It was just really not practical." The key to a practical cancer therapy came with the discovery of a chemical called CD-20, which is found on most B cells. CD-20 seems to play a role in B-cell growth, reproduction and, possibly, normal cell death, but how-or if-the chemical affects cancer treatment remains unknown. Also still unclear is how Rituxan actually works. Researchers think it flags both malignant and normal B cells for destruction, thus triggering the body's immune system to attack with killer cells and/or cell-bursting chemicals. And in the laboratory, at least, Rituxan has also been shown to act directly on cancer cells, causing them to stop growing and eventually shrivel up and die. "So for a number of reasons," says Maloney, "this has turned out to be a spectacular new treatment." Not a Cancer Cure Even with the new therapy, however, researchers caution that non-Hodgkin's lymphoma remains incurable, and patients receiving any kind of treatment may suffer recurrences of their tumors. A four-week course of Rituxan wipes out all of a patient's B cells, but a normal B-cell population returns after several months. Rituxan appears to stave off malignant growth up to 11 months, however, and in clinical trials patients suffered few side serious effects. "Certainly as a single agent Rituxan does have value," says Maloney. "But I think its real value will be in using it earlier in the course of the disease, combined with or following other standard chemotherapies." Even though it's not a cure, for many patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Rituxan represents a major step in quality of life.