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

To: Machaon who wrote (16239)	3/2/1998 7:54:00 PM
From: squetch	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32384

How many Miller Lites do you drink a night?(:>)

To: Machaon who wrote (16239)	3/2/1998 8:26:00 PM
From: Henry Niman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32384

I just got back and saw tapes of two of the three news casts. One station did melanoma and breast cancer while the other did melanoma. The original stories are actually very old, but the approaches seem to be somewhat modified. I have to look at the publication, but the news report indicated that the vaccine was combined with a stimulator of the immune system (IL-2?). Early experiments with just IL-2 cause significant and potentially serious fluid retention. Tonight's report emphasized that only a handfull of patients saw their tumor disappear, although something like 42% had tumor shrinkage. The report emphasized targeting of the immune system instead of relying on toxic chemotherapy. The HER2/neu story began in the early 80's. Dennis Slamon studied the gene (its related to the epidermal growth factor which is why it's called HER2, Human EGF Receptor 2, and it's also called neu because the mouse version cause neuroblastomas (Robert Weinberg's discovery). Over expression (or at least multiple copies) correlated with a poor prognosis. About 30% of breast cancers have a HER2/neu applification although the correlation with a poor prognosis was somewhat controversial. GNE initiated trials to treat HER2+ (the sequenced the original gene) patients and the report indicated that a subset of the treated population responded (I think with tumor shrinkage and again the patient showed on the new cast had exceptionally good results).