Encouraging preliminary results have been achieved with an experimental anti-angiogenic drug for brain tumors, and Gleevec’s anti-angiogenic properties have worked to prevent prostate cancer metastasis in mice.

Some relatively simple but deeply significant interventions that let the immune system run wild have shown success in killing or stabilizing melanoma in patients, and might be used against other forms of cancer. It is an entirely different approach compared to chemotherapy, which it has the potential to replace.

Another immune-sytem stimulus using genetics has had encouraging results against kidney cancer in European phase II clinical trials.

A large-scale trial of a vaccine for non-small-cell lung canceris underway. The vaccine did very well in a smaller

Glioblastoma Success with Anti-angiogenic  Drug

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In trials of the experimental anti-angiogenic drug AZD2171 on 16 glioblastoma  (a brain tumor) patients at Massachusetts General Hospital, the cancer shrank by  half or more in eight of them. Three-quarters had a tumor reduction of at least  25 percent, and most patients saw some reduction witin a month of receiving the  first does of the drug.

Anti-angiogenic drugs prevent a tumor from growing new blood vessels to  nourish itself. The researchers stressed that these were preliminary results,  and the effect of the drug on overall survival times had not yet been assessed.  Nevertheless, the findings suggest that conventional chemotherapy in combination  with the new drug might be more effective.

Anti-angioenic for Prostate Cancer

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University of Texas researchers have discovered that in mice given prostate  cancer, the leukaemia drug Gleevec (imatinib) and chemotherapy drug Taxol  (paclitaxel) helped stop the cancer spreading to the bone by cutting off the  cancer’s blood supply.

Bone tumors grew in four of 18 mice that received the drug treatment, but in  all 19 untreated mice.

The researchers found that Gleevec stopped the endothelial cells lining the  walls of existing blood vessels from sprouting new branches, by inactivating a  receptor called PDGF-R on the blood vessel cell surface. The blood vessel cells  then died, followed by the tumor cells one to two weeks later.

Immune Systems vs. Cancer

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Several fundamentally new strategies to fight cancer by harnessing the body’s  own immune system were revealed at an oncology conference late last year. At JG  Brown Cancer Center in Kentucky, seven patients with advanced skin cancer were  given a drug combination to knock out the body’s T-regulatory cells, thereby  preventing the immune system from shutting down and “priming the body to mount a  continuous attack against cancer,” as AP medical writer Maria Cheng put it. The  result: tumors shrank or remained stable in five of the seven patients. “It’s  like having permanent chemotherapy,” said a researcher.

At the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, researchers blocked  a protein on T-regulatory cells to similar effect – inhibiting them enough for  the immune system to attack cancerous cells. Out of 25 patients tested, 24 were  alive after 17 months, and three were free of cancer.

This approach could eliminate chemotherapy from the oncologist’s  armamentarium if it can be shown that “allowing the immune system to run wild” (which is basically what happens if you hobble the regulators) could lead to  autoimmune diseases including hepatitis, colitis, and dermatitis. On the other  hand, patients might prefer those manageable conditions to skin cancer.

The researchers say it will be years before their strategies can be  validated. But if they are, they could also be applied to other types of cancer  in which T-regulatory cells are known to play a role, such as breast, kidney,  and esophageal cancers.

Kidney Cancer Vaccine

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In a 150-patient Phase II clinical trial of Oxford Biomedica’s TroVax  vaccine, which uses the body’s immune system to attack an aggressive form of  kidney cancer, one patient’s tumor was eradicated, two patients saw their tumors  shrink, and a further 15 were stable for at least three months.

The vaccine, admoinistered as seven injections over 41 weeks, is a virus  vector that introduces a gene into a protein called 5T4 that is present on the  surface of around 90 percent of kidney tumors, but not on healthy cells. The  gene triggers an immune reaction which leads the body to attack the cancer  cells. The treatment is given alongside standard cancer therapy.

A phase III trial involving 700 patients will compare TroVax plus standard  kidney cancer treatment with a dummy version plus standard treatment is  underway.

Lung Cancer Vaccine

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A worldwide trial of Stimuvax, a vaccine against non-small cell lung cancer,  is under way among more than 1,300 patients. Preliminary trials showed the  vaccine’s potential for a substantial increase in survival time for many  patients.

The vaccine works by stimulating the body’s own immune system to attack  cancer cells. Other researchers are looking at the potential for the same  vaccine to tackle other types of cancer.