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: Unraveling the nature of 'whistlers' from space in the lab

A new study sheds light on how ultralow frequency radio waves and plasmas interact

Scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles present new research on a curious cosmic phenomenon known as "whistlers" -- very low frequency packets...

Im Focus: New interactive machine learning tool makes car designs more aerodynamic

Scientists develop first tool to use machine learning methods to compute flow around interactively designable 3D objects. Tool will be presented at this year’s prestigious SIGGRAPH conference.

When engineers or designers want to test the aerodynamic properties of the newly designed shape of a car, airplane, or other object, they would normally model...

Im Focus: Robots as 'pump attendants': TU Graz develops robot-controlled rapid charging system for e-vehicles

Researchers from TU Graz and their industry partners have unveiled a world first: the prototype of a robot-controlled, high-speed combined charging system (CCS) for electric vehicles that enables series charging of cars in various parking positions.

Global demand for electric vehicles is forecast to rise sharply: by 2025, the number of new vehicle registrations is expected to reach 25 million per year....

Im Focus: The “TRiC” to folding actin

Proteins must be folded correctly to fulfill their molecular functions in cells. Molecular assistants called chaperones help proteins exploit their inbuilt folding potential and reach the correct three-dimensional structure. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry (MPIB) have demonstrated that actin, the most abundant protein in higher developed cells, does not have the inbuilt potential to fold and instead requires special assistance to fold into its active state. The chaperone TRiC uses a previously undescribed mechanism to perform actin folding. The study was recently published in the journal Cell.

Actin is the most abundant protein in highly developed cells and has diverse functions in processes like cell stabilization, cell division and muscle...

Im Focus: Lining up surprising behaviors of superconductor with one of the world's strongest magnets

Scientists have discovered that the electrical resistance of a copper-oxide compound depends on the magnetic field in a very unusual way -- a finding that could help direct the search for materials that can perfectly conduct electricity at room temperatur

What happens when really powerful magnets--capable of producing magnetic fields nearly two million times stronger than Earth's--are applied to materials that...

All Focus news of the innovation-report >>>

Top

Send this article

Forum for Science, Industry and Business