To print: Select File and then Print from your browser's menu --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Title: Gene Therapy Successfully Increases Survival for End-Stage Head and Neck Cancer URL: http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/2227F2.htm Doctor's Guide May 29, 2008
HOUSTON, Tex -- May 29, 2008 -- A gene therapy invented at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, is the first to succeed in a US phase 3 clinical trial for cancer, as announced today at the 11th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Gene Therapy in Boston, Massachusetts. Results were reported today from a phase 3 trial on a modified adenovirus that expresses the tumour-suppressing gene p53 (Advexin) for end-stage head and neck cancer. The p53 gene is inactivated in many types of cancer. Its normal role is to halt the division of a defective cell and then force the cell to kill itself. Jack Roth, MD, Professor, Department of Thoracic & Cardiovascular Surgery, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, the drug's inventor, and colleagues deleted an important region of the adenovirus' genome, preventing it from replicating. They installed a genomic segment that expresses p53. When injected into a tumour, the p53 adenovirus burrows into the cancer cell's nucleus. Instead of replicating in a typical viral manner, it expresses p53, resulting in cell death. "Cells become cancerous because p53 no longer functions. Restoring p53 works unlike any current cancer treatment because it treats the cancer genome," said Dr. Roth. The trial showed that p53 expression in the patient's tumour before treatment is a reliable biomarker for how to treat head and neck cancer. Patients with a favourable p53 profile who received the tumour-suppressing gene p53 had a median survival of 7.2 months compared with 2.7 months for those whose tumour expressed high levels of mutant p53 before treatment. Patients with this unfavourable profile were better off taking the chemotherapy drug methotrexate, resulting in median survival of 5.9 months. "The important finding is that patients who benefit from treatment can be identified with the p53 biomarker. The biomarker will enable physicians to personalise treatment," said Roth, who also directs M.D. Anderson's W.M. Keck Center for Innovative Cancer Therapies. SOURCE: University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright © 1999 P\S\L Consulting Group Inc. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of P\S\L content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of P\S\L. P\S\L shall not be liable for any errors, omissions or delays in this content or any other content on its sites, newsletters or other publications, nor for any decisions or actions taken in reliance on such content. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This news story was printed from *Doctor's Guide to the Internet* located at http://www.docguide.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Return to News Story Page This site is maintained by webmaster@pslgroup.com Please contact us with any comments, problems or bugs. All contents Copyright (c) 1998 P\S\L Consulting Group Inc. All rights reserved.