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

To: Andrew H who wrote (13636)	1/23/1998 1:38:00 AM
From: Henry Niman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32384

Andy, I have not found the PFE story on Droloxifene linked to LGND by any of the wire services yet (PRNewswire and Reuters). I have to check out Dow Jones.

To: Andrew H who wrote (13636)	1/23/1998 1:45:00 AM
From: Henry Niman	Respond to of 32384

Here's the Dow Jones version of PRNewswire: Pfizer Shifts Droloxifene Focus From Breast Cancer Treatment (MORE) DOW JONES NEWS 01-22-98 05:11 PM NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Pfizer Inc. (PFE) said due to interim clinical trial results it is shifting the focus of its developmental program for droloxifene, an estrogen agonist/antagonist, from treatment of advanced breast cancer to prevention of osteoporosis. In a press release Thursday, Pfizer said interim results from the clinical trial of droloxifene for the treatment of advanced (metastatic) estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer showed that at the dose studied, droloxifene offers no benefit beyond the current therapy. Therefore, the company won't submit the droloxifene New Drug Application for treatment of breast cancer in the fourth quarter of 1998 as originally anticipated. Pfizer said preliminary data on the efficacy and safety of droloxifene in osteoporosis are encouraging, especially when compared to currently available products, and Pfizer will now accelerate development efforts in this therapeutic area. The company also plans to investigate the use of droloxifene in the prevention of breast cancer and other potential health issues of post-menopausal women. Separately, Pfizer has discontinued exploration of the anti-arthritic agent tenidap for possible future development as a disease-modifying agent for osteoarthritis. Future research will focus on back-up anti-arthritis compounds with potentially enhanced safety and efficacy characteristics. Also, Pfizer confirmed it will file an NDA with the Food and Drug Administration for dofetilide in March. Dofetilide is a selective potassium-channel blocker for the treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF). Clinical data indicate dofetilide is effective in controlling AF, a type of heart arrhythmia, and is better tolerated than older drugs. Pfizer is a research-based healthcare company.

To: Andrew H who wrote (13636)	1/23/1998 2:03:00 AM
From: Henry Niman	Respond to of 32384

Here's more hormone news: By Stephen Hart ABCNEWS.com Jan. 21 -Researchers may have discovered a marker that flags prostate cancer in much the same way high cholesterol warns of heart disease. It's an ordinary hormone called IGF-1 -for insulin-like growth factor-and if early research holds up in further testing, it could give doctors a new way to determine how early to treat men with prostate cancer. Around 200,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer every year in the United States, and about 40,000 die from it. Even before symptoms occur, a blood test called prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, can indicate the presence of cancer, which is often successfully treated with surgery and radiation. But some men suffer side effects from the treatments, including bowel and bladder irritation and urinary incontinence. And nearly everyone treated for prostate cancer suffers sexual dysfunction, at least during the year following treatment. Measuring both PSA and IGF-1 could allow physicians to delay treatment for some patients whose cancer was found very early, and to warn cancer-free men who run a high risk of prostate cancer in the future. Supplementing PSA Test After comparing blood specimens from 152 men with prostate cancer to samples from 152 healthy men, cancer researcher Michael Pollak of the McGill University in Toronto and Harvard University epidemiologist June M. Chan, concluded that IGF-1 may be an accurate marker for prostate cancer. "The strength of the association between IGF-1 and prostate cancer is in the same ballpark as the association between cholesterol and heart disease," says Pollak. All of the men whose blood was analyzed were participants in the Physician's Health Study, a research effort in which the health and lifestyle habits of thousands of men were tracked over time. Working with blood samples taken in 1982, at the beginning of the larger study, Pollak and Chan divided the men into four groups, from those with the lowest levels of IGF-1 to the highest. They also tested the blood samples for PSA levels. They found that men who had normal PSA tests but were in the highest IGF-1 group were nearly five times as likely to have developed prostate cancer as men with the lowest levels of IGF-1. Furthermore, men with positive PSA tests but low IGF-1 were only four times as likely as men with normal PSA levels to have been diagnosed with prostate cancer during the study period. But men who had positive PSA tests and were in the highest IGF-1 group stood nearly 18 times the chance of getting prostate cancer. Treatment Controversy Eventually, most experts agree, nearly all men who have positive PSA tests will get prostate cancer. IGF-1, on the other hand, measures the relative risk of getting cancer in the future. Not all prostate cancers act alike, Pollak explains, and "there has been this controversy about whether everybody with early prostate cancer needs to have surgery or radiation. IGF-1 may turn out to be an important tool in helping decide who needs surgery, who needs radiation and who could be safely just watched." "I don't think it's something that would be put into practice any time in the near future," cautions Chan. "Our results are pretty early findings, but they did suggest that you could enhance diagnosis using a standard PSA and a test for IGF-1 levels." Both researchers hope their study will spawn more investigation into use of IGF-1 levels to detect prostate cancer early. If larger studies bolster their results, a blood test for IGF-1 could become a routine part of every middle-aged man's yearly checkup.