Farnesyl transferase inhibitor can help patients at high-risk for developing AML

HomeScience ReportsReports and NewsHealth and Medicine

Farnesyl transferase inhibitor can help patients at high-risk for developing AML

06.12.2004

ASH news tips from M. D. Anderson Cancer Center

The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center offers these news items presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH). An oral targeted therapy gentle enough to be used by patients in their 70s or 80s is showing benefit in treating high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a pre-leukemic disorder that can progress to acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH).

The drug R115777 (Zarnestra) (tipifarnib) produced responses that ranged from complete responses to improvement in blood counts in about one-third of 82 patients treated at seven different hospitals in the United States, Canada, and Europe, says the study’s lead investigator, Razelle Kurzrock, M.D., a professor in the Department of Experimental Therapeutics at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

That level of response, as well as side effects that are well tolerated, can be a boon to the mostly elderly patients who develop the syndrome, Kurzrock says. "It is one more drug that can be tried to help improve blood counts and prevent leukemia development in these patients," she says. At the time the study began, there was no approved therapy to treat MDS, but recently, the FDA approved use of azacytidine (Vidaza), which is a chemotherapy drug administered subcutaneously. Zarnestra helps about as many patients as Vidaza, "but for diseases like this, you need more than one drug because the syndrome is made up of numerous subtypes," Kurzrock says. "If one drug doesn’t help, then the other might; or they could potentially be used together."

Zarnestra belongs to a group of drugs known as farnesyl transferase inhibitors, which block enzymes needed for the activation of cancer-promoting proteins. While the drug was initially believed to act primarily on the ras gene, which is mutated in about 25 percent of MDS patients, recent studies including this one demonstrate that patients whose ras gene is normal can benefit, Kurzrock says. "It has become apparent that Zarnestra regulates other important cancer genes, although we don’t know which ones they are."

Nancy Jensen | EurekAlert!
Further information:
http://www.mdanderson.org

All articles from Health and Medicine >>>

The most recent press releases about innovation >>>

Die letzten 5 Focus-News des innovations-reports im Überblick:

Im Focus: MPSD team discovers light-induced ferroelectricity in strontium titanate

Light can be used not only to measure materials’ properties, but also to change them. Especially interesting are those cases in which the function of a material can be modified, such as its ability to conduct electricity or to store information in its magnetic state. A team led by Andrea Cavalleri from the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter in Hamburg used terahertz frequency light pulses to transform a non-ferroelectric material into a ferroelectric one.

Ferroelectricity is a state in which the constituent lattice “looks” in one specific direction, forming a macroscopic electrical polarisation. The ability to...

Im Focus: Determining the Earth’s gravity field more accurately than ever before

Researchers at TU Graz calculate the most accurate gravity field determination of the Earth using 1.16 billion satellite measurements. This yields valuable knowledge for climate research.

The Earth’s gravity fluctuates from place to place. Geodesists use this phenomenon to observe geodynamic and climatological processes. Using...

Im Focus: Tube anemone has the largest animal mitochondrial genome ever sequenced

Discovery by Brazilian and US researchers could change the classification of two species, which appear more akin to jellyfish than was thought.

The tube anemone Isarachnanthus nocturnus is only 15 cm long but has the largest mitochondrial genome of any animal sequenced to date, with 80,923 base pairs....

Im Focus: Tiny light box opens new doors into the nanoworld

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have discovered a completely new way of capturing, amplifying and linking light to matter at the nanolevel. Using a tiny box, built from stacked atomically thin material, they have succeeded in creating a type of feedback loop in which light and matter become one. The discovery, which was recently published in Nature Nanotechnology, opens up new possibilities in the world of nanophotonics.

Photonics is concerned with various means of using light. Fibre-optic communication is an example of photonics, as is the technology behind photodetectors and...

Im Focus: Cost-effective and individualized advanced electronic packaging in small batches now available

Fraunhofer IZM is joining the EUROPRACTICE IC Service platform. Together, the partners are making fan-out wafer level packaging (FOWLP) for electronic devices available and affordable even in small batches – and thus of interest to research institutes, universities, and SMEs. Costs can be significantly reduced by up to ten customers implementing individual fan-out wafer level packaging for their ICs or other components on a multi-project wafer. The target group includes any organization that does not produce in large quantities, but requires prototypes.

Research always means trying things out and daring to do new things. Research institutes, universities, and SMEs do not produce in large batches, but rather...

All Focus news of the innovation-report >>>

Top

Send this article

Forum for Science, Industry and Business