epidermal growth factor receptor – Page 3

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|

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|

YM Biosciences’s drug selected for Phase III head and neck cancer study

Source: www.pharmaceutical-business-review.com Author: staff YM BioSciences, an oncology company, has announced that the National Cancer Centre of Singapore has selected nimotuzumab, the company's EGFR-targeting drug, for evaluation in a multinational Phase III trial of more than 700 patients with cancers of the head and neck. The National Cancer Centre of Singapore (NCCS) said that it selected nimotuzumab because of its reported preferential safety profile compared with other epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-targeting cancer drugs. The trial is sponsored by the NCCS in collaboration with Innogene Kalbiotech, YM's licensee for nimotuzumab for the region. The NCCS is the lead cancer center coordinating this clinical trial, which will involve approximately 22 institutions from 12 countries worldwide. The trial will treat patients with locally advanced squamous cell cancers of the head and neck immediately following surgery - the 'adjuvant setting'. Along with standard chemotherapy and radiotherapy, half of the patients will be administered nimotuzumab weekly for an eight week period. The primary endpoint for this study is two-year and five-year disease-free survival; the secondary endpoint is two-year and five-year overall survival. The countries involved in the trial include Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Israel, South Africa and Cuba. The trial is expected to expand into Canada and additional sites may also be added from the Philippines, Australia and the UK. The NCCS anticipates reporting initial results from the trial in approximately five years. David Allan, chairman and CEO of YM BioSciences, said: "This trial further expands the [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-01-07T12:14:31-07:00January, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Merck Serono’s Erbitux nominated for International Prix Galien Award – transforming head and neck cancer treatment

Source: www.medicalnewstoday.com Author: staff Merck Serono's Erbitux® is one of the finalists for the prestigious International Prix Galien Award for excellence in pharmaceutical development and innovation due to its role in transforming the treatment of head and neck cancer. Erbitux is the first and only targeted therapy approved for the treatment of squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) and works in a completely different way to conventional chemotherapies. Through its targeted mode of action, Erbitux blocks the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), which is expressed in more than 90% of SCCHN tumors1 and is directly related to a poor prognosis for patients. The efficacy and tolerability of this novel drug have been shown in clinical trials2 - the latest of which, EXTREMEa, demonstrated the first significant advance in 30 years for the treatment of recurrent and/or metastatic SCCHN. 3 "We are very pleased that Erbitux has been short-listed for arguably the most prestigious award in our industry," said Dr Wolfgang Wein, Executive Vice President, Oncology, Merck Serono. "This recognizes not only the outstanding clinical excellence of Erbitux but also the significant breakthrough that the drug offers patients with head and neck cancer, which is so difficult to treat. Merck Serono is passionate about advancing research across a range of oncology indications and improving the treatments available to cancer patients." Erbitux is licensed in locally-advanced SCCHN on the basis of data demonstrating that in combination with radiotherapy it achieved locoregional control for more than two years, almost 20 [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-10-15T06:32:49-07:00October, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

Erbitux – first treatment in 30 years to prolong survival in 1st-line recurrent and/or metastatic head and neck cancer

Source: www.medicalnewstoday.com Author: staff Data presented at the 33rd European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress in Stockholm demonstrate that the addition of Erbitux® (cetuximab) to platinum-based chemotherapy increases overall survival (OS) compared to chemotherapy alone in the 1st-line treatment of patients with recurrent and/or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN).1 Furthermore the data showed the significant benefits of Erbitux were achieved without any detrimental impact on quality of life (QoL).2 "These data are incredibly exciting as they represent the first advance in the 1st-line treatment of head and neck cancer in this setting for three decades. For the first time since the introduction of platinum-based chemotherapy we are able to increase the overall survival time for recurrent and/or metastatic head and neck cancer patients," said Professor Jan B. Vermorken, lead investigator of the EXTREMEa trial and head of the Department of Medical Oncology, Antwerp University Hospital, Belgium. The EXTREME study was a multicenter, randomized, controlled, Phase III trial involving 442 patients, designed to assess the efficacy of Erbitux combined with cisplatin or carboplatin plus 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) versus chemotherapy alone in the 1st-line treatment of patients with recurrent and/or metastatic SCCHN.1 Patients treated with Erbitux plus chemotherapy experienced the following improvements, compared to chemotherapy alone:1 - Increased median overall survival of nearly 3 months (10.1 vs. 7.4 months; p=0.04), equating to a 20% risk reduction of death (HR: 0.80) during the study period - A 70% increase in median progression-free survival (5.6 vs. 3.3 months; p<0.001) [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-09-15T22:10:24-07:00September, 2008|Oral Cancer News|