EGFR – Page 3 – Oral Cancer News

Presence of rash associated with improved survival in patients receiving adjuvant Erbitux® for locally advanced head and neck cancer

Source: professional.cancerconsultants.com Author: staff A multicenter randomized trial has shown that patients with locoregionally advanced head and neck cancer receiving adjuvant Erbitux® (cetuximab) and radiotherapy who develop a rash have a better survival than patients receiving this therapy who don’t develop a rash. The details of this five-year follow-up of a Phase III randomized study were published early online in the Lancet Oncology on November 7, 2009.[1] Standard treatment for head and neck cancer is largely determined by the stage and by the specific locations within the head or neck area where the cancer has spread. The patient’s overall medical condition is also a deciding factor. Treatment typically consists of radiation therapy, chemotherapy with surgery, or surgery alone. Erbitux is a monoclonal antibody that binds to the epithelial growth factory receptor (EGFR) and inhibits the receptor’s effects on cellular replication. Erbitux is currently FDA-approved for treatment of head and neck cancer. Researchers involved in an international study have previously reported that the addition of Erbitux to radiation therapy improves survival over radiation therapy alone in the treatment of head and neck cancer. The results of this randomized trial with a 54-month follow-up were published in the February 9, 2006, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. This trial included 424 patients; approximately half were treated with Erbitux plus high-dose radiation therapy, and the other half received high-dose radiation therapy alone. This study now has a follow-up of more than five years. The Following table summarizes some of the findings [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-11-17T19:52:44-07:00November, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

YM Biosciences reports positive nimotuzumab four-year survival data

Source: www.reuters.com Author: press release YM BioSciences Inc., a life sciences product development company that identifies and advances a diverse portfolio of promising cancer-related products at various stages of development, announced that an oral presentation at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO) 2009 Annual Meeting reported positive 48-month survival data for its EGFR-targeting antibody, nimotuzumab. The "BEST" trial was a randomized four-arm study treating patients with inoperable, locoregionally-advanced, stage III/IVa head and neck cancer with radiation alone, chemoradiation alone, or radiation or chemoradiation in combination with nimotuzumab. These data were a follow-up to 30-month survival data presented at ASCO 2009 and demonstrate that the benefit of adding nimotuzumab to radiation and chemoradiation is durable and persists for several years. "These data are convincing evidence that nimotuzumab is an efficacious and safe drug and highlight its potential in the head and neck cancer indication. In this respect we note that the National Cancer Centre of Singapore has initiated a global Phase III trial with nimotuzumab in the adjuvant setting for head and neck cancer patients," said David Allan, Chairman and CEO of YM BioSciences. "Activity of nimotuzumab in the BEST trial was similar to that demonstrated in separate trials with cetuximab in locally advanced head and neck cancer but there was no evidence that nimotuzumab's activity was accompanied by the advanced toxicities of the class." In the ASTRO presentation, Dr. Lokesh Viswanth, Kidwani Memorial Institute of Oncology, Bangalore, India described that the addition of nimotuzumab to radiotherapy (RT) [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-11-03T08:17:42-07:00November, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Erbitux® may improve treatment of squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus

Source: professional.cancerconsultants.com Author: staff Researchers from Germany have reported that Erbitux® (cetuximab) improves response rate, time to disease progression, and overall survival of patients with metastatic squamous cell carcinoma receiving Platinol® (cisplatin) and 5-FU. The details of this study appeared in the October 2009 issue of Annals of Oncology.[1] Esophageal cancer is relatively common and is very deadly. It 1998 there were approximately 12,300 new cases of esophageal cancer diagnosed in the United States and nearly 12,000 esophageal cancer deaths, making esophageal cancer one of the most deadly of all cancers. Most cancers of the upper two-thirds of the esophagus arise from squamous cells. Cancers of the lower esophagus most often arise from columnar epithelium and are adenocarcinomas. In the recent past, squamous cell cancers made up more than 80% of all esophageal cancers. Over the past two decades, there has been a dramatic increase in the incidence of adenocarcinomas, which now account for one-third to one-half of all esophageal cancers. However, squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus remains a major problem and is difficult to treat when metastatic. Usual treatment for metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus includes a platinum compound and 5-FU. Erbitux is a chimeric monoclonal antibody that binds to the outer domain of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). It is currently approved, in combination with radiation therapy, for the treatment of locally or regionally advanced head and neck cancer, or as a single agent in the treatment of advanced, EGFR-expressing head and neck cancer [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-10-03T07:26:31-07:00October, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Tips on managing the rash associated with EGFR inhibitors

Source: OncologySTAT (www.oncologystat.com) Author: OncologySTAT Editorial Team Nurses at Duke University Hospital in Durham, NC, have developed a treatment algorithm for the rash that frequently occurs with use of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors. “We want to help sustain patients so they can continue to get their therapy and maintain their quality of life,” Kimberly Bishop, RN, BSN, OCN, said at the Oncology Nursing Society 34th Annual Congress. For mild rash that doesn’t affect activities of daily living or quality of life, the algorithm recommends a topical cream—hydrocortisone and/or clindamycin or metronidazole. “At our institution, we use MetroCream [metronidazole cream] as our primary topical agent,” Ms. Bishop said. For moderate rash, an oral antibiotic is added, most commonly doxycycline 100 mg twice daily. “We reassess [patients] every 2 weeks to see what the rash looks like, and encourage patients to call to let us know if there is a change in the rash,” she said. Ms. Bishop described the rash as very red, often starting as a macular reaction and progressing to a pustular abscess-like rash that becomes ulcerated. “The rash itself is not infectious but can lead to a secondary superinfection from scratching. That’s why antibiotic therapy is important,” she said. For severe rash, the recommendation is to hold the EGFR inhibitor therapy and reassess within 1 to 2 weeks, continue with the antibiotic, and also add a Medrol Dosepak (oral methylprednisolone packaged to provide a tapering dose). Ms. Bishop warned that “any time you put steroid cream [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-09-28T03:53:00-07:00September, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Gefitinib shows promise as treatment for advanced head and neck cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma

Source: www.docguide.com Author: Louise Gagnon Gefitinib produces a significant response in patients with advanced head and neck cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) prior to standard treatment, according to a phase 2 study presented here at the 2nd World Congress of the International Academy of Oral Oncology (IAOO). "We want to shrink the tumour as much as we can prior to surgery, so the patient will have the best outcome," said Shirley Taylor, University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, on July 9. Taylor noted that patients with advanced squamous cell carcinoma on the head and neck face a poor prognosis with standard treatments of surgery and radiation, so clinicians are exploring other therapies to improve prognosis for this patient population. Since epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a tyrosine kinase that is overexpressed in cSCC, it was logical to use a compound that inhibits the catalytic activity of the tyrosine kinase, explained Taylor. "It is a more targeted therapy," noted Taylor. The study enrolled 23 patients, 22 of whom were evaluable for responses and toxicities to gefitinib. Patients received oral gefitinib 250 mg/day for 2 cycles of 30 days each and were evaluated for response via computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at 15 days after therapy "If patients showed a response, they continued to receive therapy," explained Taylor. "If they showed stable disease, the dose was escalated to 500 mg per day. If they showed progression of disease, they were taken off the drug." [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-07-15T04:05:55-07:00July, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center’s research efforts highlighted at annual cancer conference

Source: www.mc.vanderbilt.edu Author: Dagny Stuart A new drug which targets a genetic mutation found in more than 50 percent of melanoma cases, 10 percent to 15 percent of colorectal tumors and 8 percent of other solid tumors, caused tumor shrinkage and extended progression-free survival among patients during a recent Phase 1 clinical trial. Igor Puzanov, M.D., assistant professor of Medicine, and Jeffrey Sosman, M.D., Ingram Professor of Cancer Research, led Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center's participation in the multi-center study. Puzanov delivered the initial findings during a poster session at the recent American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) conference in Orlando, Fla. Puzanov and Sosman were among nearly a dozen VICC cancer investigators who were invited to give oral or poster presentations on their latest research findings during the ASCO conference. PLX4032 is a novel, highly selective drug that targets the BRAFV600E cancer-causing genetic mutation. In addition to tumor shrinkage and delay in tumor progression, some patients reported clinical improvement in symptoms. “The BRAFV600E mutation activates the MAP kinase signaling pathway, causing cells to proliferate. One of the hallmarks of cancer is this uncontrolled, unregulated cell proliferation,” said Puzanov. “The new drug is a very selective inhibitor which appears to target only this mutation, and it blocks the unregulated cell growth and causes cell death.” In patients without the mutation, no clinical response to treatment was observed and progression-free survival was less than two months, consistent with historical data. “This is personalized medicine at its best,” said Sosman. “If continued trials confirm [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-06-27T15:28:04-07:00June, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

DNA therapy for head and neck cancer

Source: Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology 6, 302 (June 2009) Author: Mandy Aujla Researchers have developed an antisense EGFR sequence to target EGFR, and found that this approach was safe and effective in patients with advanced squamous-cell carcinoma of the head and neck. Standard treatment for this type of cancer is suboptimal. Various drugs have been developed to block this increased signaling, such as cetuximab and erlotinib. These agents, however, have had limited success when used as monotherapy in treating squamous-cell carcinoma of the head and neck. Despite encouraging preclinical data these agents produce low response rates and are associated with toxic effects. Therefore, alternative approaches that target EGFR are needed. In this phase I trial, Lai and colleagues evaluated the safety and toxicity of EGFR antisense DNA therapy in 20 patients with advanced squamous-cell carcinoma of the head and neck. All patients included in the study had advanced disease that was unresponsive to standard therapies. The researchers tested six levels of the antisense EGFR at doses ranging from 60 to 1,920 g per injection, with three patients in each dose tier. The antisense EGFR was injected into the most accessible single tumor lesion once a week for 4 weeks. A biopsy was performed within 2 weeks of the final injection. A total of 17 patients completed the treatment course and were available for assessment. Of the five patients who achieved a clinical response, two had a complete response and three achieved a partial response. Two other patients had stable disease. [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-06-02T17:45:23-07:00June, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Personalised cancer diagnosis

Source: www.economist.com Author: staff If researchers could identify what it is that makes a tissue tumorous, they might be able to develop drugs aimed precisely at the cause of the cancer. At present, they know that certain molecules become active in tumours found in certain parts of the body. Both head-and-neck cancers and breast cancers, for example, have an abundance of molecules called epidermal growth-factor receptors (EGFRs). Now one group of researchers has developed a technique that could, in the long term, diagnose almost all cancers according to their molecular origin rather than what part of the body they had cropped up in. That might eventually allow doctors to apply more relevant treatment. Moreover, in the short term, the new technique can already reveal how advanced a person’s cancer is, and thus how likely it is to return after treatment. At present, pathologists assess how advanced a cancer is by taking a sample, known as a biopsy, and examining the concentration within it of specific receptors, such as EGFRs, that are known to help cancers spread. Peter Parker of Cancer Research UK’s London Research Institute had the idea of employing a technique called fluorescence resonance-energy transfer (FRET), which is used to study interactions between individual protein molecules, to see if he could find out not only how many receptors there are in a biopsy but also how active they are. The technique uses two types of antibody, each attached to a fluorescent dye molecule. Each of the two types is [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-05-13T12:57:59-07:00May, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Monoclonal Antibody Drugs for Cancer Treatment

Source: www.newswise.com Author: staff The strategy of using monoclonal antibodies for cancer treatment was first described in the late 1970s with the promise that they could be developed into therapies that were highly specific to cancer cells, killing them with few or no side effects. For several types of cancer, monoclonal antibodies have already offered this advantage to patients. For other cancer types, they have provided an additional therapeutic weapon, but with smaller benefits and sometimes new side effects. "The first efforts for monoclonal antibody cancer therapy were to find antibodies that would home in on tumors and bind to proteins on the surface of cancer cells," explained physician-scientist David A. Scheinberg. "We looked for unique proteins that were specific only to cancer cells. The idea was that the antibody would be used to stimulate an immune response in the body, which would kill the cancer cell." Dr. Scheinberg, who is Chair of Memorial Sloan-Kettering's Experimental Therapeutics Center and the Molecular Pharmacology and Chemistry Program within the Sloan-Kettering Institute, developed an antibody called M195, which targets a protein on leukemia cells, when working as a research fellow in collaboration with Memorial Sloan-Kettering immunologist Lloyd Old in the 1980s. This approach further evolved when researchers realized they could use the antibody as a carrier to deliver a radioactive isotope or a toxic drug directly to the cancer cell, where it would kill the cell while sparing nearby healthy tissue. Antibodies are proteins that help the immune system to identify foreign substances [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-04-05T11:28:05-07:00April, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Tarceva® and Avastin® safe and effective for patients with squamous-cell head and neck carcinoma

Source: professional.cancerconsultants.com Author: staff Researchers from the National Cancer Institute and the University of Chicago have reported that the combination of Tarceva® (erlotinib) and Avastin® (bevacizumab) is well tolerated and produces sustained responses in some patients with recurrent or metastatic squamous-cell head and neck carcinoma. The details of this study appeared in the March 2009 issue of Lancet Oncology.[1] Tarceva is an epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor. EGFRs are small proteins that are found on the surface of all cells. EGFR binds exclusively to small growth factor proteins circulating in the blood. The binding action between EGFR and growth factors stimulates biological processes within the cell to promote growth of a cell in a strictly controlled manner. However, in many cancer cells, EGFR is either abundantly over-expressed or the EGFR biological processes that normally stimulate cell growth are constantly active, leading to the uncontrolled and excessive growth of the cancer cell. Tarceva is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of non–small cell lung cancer and has significant activity in a variety of tumors, including hepatocellular carcinoma, pancreatic cancer, colorectal cancer, and renal cell cancer. Avastin is a humanized monoclonal antibody that is targeted against the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Avastin is approved by the FDA for the initial treatment of advanced colorectal cancer in combination with 5-fluorouracil-based therapy and has demonstrated an improvement in survival when combined with Camptosar® (irinotecan)-based chemotherapy in the treatment of this disease. Avastin was also [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-03-06T22:41:40-07:00March, 2009|Oral Cancer News|