PRM-151 therapy well tolerated in patients with advanced myelofibrosis
MD Anderson study results presented to American Society of Hematology
2014-12-09
(Press-News.org) A study that investigated the potential of the compound PRM-151 (PRM) for reducing progressive bone marrow fibrosis (scarring) in patients with advanced myelofibrosis has shown initial positive results. Myelofibrosis is a life-threatening bone marrow cancer.
The study, led by Srdan Verstovsek, M.D., Ph.D., professor of leukemia at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, showed the compound was well tolerated in observing 27 patients. Verstovsek's research results were presented today at the 56th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual conference in San Francisco and were published in the ASH journal Blood.
"There was no evidence of drug-related myelosuppression or suppression of the bone marrow's ability to produce blood cells and platelets. We also saw encouraging trends in both clinical and histologic aspects of the disease," said Verstovsek. "With demonstrated reduction in bone marrow fibrosis, stable to improved hematologic parameters, symptom responses, and stable to reduced spleen size, it is clear that there is merit for further development of PRM.
Myelofibrosis is caused by the accumulation of malignant bone marrow cells that triggers an inflammatory response, scarring the bone marrow and limiting its ability to produce blood, resulting in anemia. About 3,000 new cases of myelofibrosis are diagnosed in the United States each year. Average survival ranges from two to 11 years, depending on a variety of prognostic factors.
Patients with myelofibrosis experience many debilitating symptoms including fatigue, weight loss, abdominal pain, severe itching, night sweats and bone pain. A swollen spleen is one hallmark of the disease tied to many of its symptoms.
PRM is a recombinant form of Pentraxin-2, a human protein that acts at sites of tissue damage, inducing macrophage differentiation to prevent and reverse fibrosis. PRM has demonstrated broad anti-fibrotic activity in multiple preclinical models of established fibrotic diseases and no dose-limiting toxicities in phase I trials. Verstovsek found that PRM was well tolerated both in combination with, and without ruxolitinib, another potent myelofibrosis therapy.
INFORMATION:
Hagop Kantarjian, M.D., chair of leukemia at MD Anderson, also participated in the study. Other participating institutions included Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, Scottsdale, Ariz.; St. Paul's Hospital and the University of British Columbia, Vancouver; Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto; The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York; New York Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical College, New York; Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston; Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston; Promedior Inc., Lexington, Mass.; and Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, Calif.
The study was funded by Promedior Inc., and the National Institutes of Health (CA016672).
[Attachments] See images for this press release:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2014-12-09
Aiming to empower planners and policy-makers to achieve better health for billions of people living in fast-growing urban areas, world health, environmental, behavioural and social science experts today launched a major new interdisciplinary scientific collaboration.
Programme goals:
Empowering planners and policy-makers with better science to create healthy urban environments and improve wellbeing;
Identify and manage unintended health consequences of urban policy;
Understand connections between cities and planetary change
Leading the consortium of science ...
2014-12-09
Opposing views on the potential impact of electronic cigarettes on public health are published in the open access journal BMC Medicine. The commentaries, by two experts, differ in their views on the topic but are united in their call for a rational discussion based on evidence.
The authors examine the WHO's recommendations earlier this year. One recommendation was that smokers should not use e-cigarettes and has now been withdrawn, and the other is that policymakers should implement their strict regulation, which is still in force.
In one of the commentaries, Peter ...
2014-12-09
Sophia Antipolis, 09 December 2014: Heart disease patients have been advised to avoid being outside during rush hour traffic in a paper published today in European Heart Journal.1 The position paper on air pollution and cardiovascular disease was written by experts from the European Society of Cardiology and also recommends decreasing the use of fossil fuels.
Professor Robert F. Storey, corresponding author of the paper, said: "More than 3 million deaths worldwide are caused by air pollution each year. Air pollution ranks ninth among the modifiable disease risk factors, ...
2014-12-09
There is no need to spray insecticide on walls for malaria control when people sleep under treated bed nets, according to new research.
Use of insecticide sprayed on internal walls, when combined with insecticide-treated bed nets in homes, does not protect children from malaria any more effectively than using just insecticide-treated bed nets, the research led by Durham University and the Medical Research Council's Unit in The Gambia found.
The researchers said this was important as insecticide-treated nets and insecticide sprayed on walls are commonly used for controlling ...
2014-12-09
The system that allows patients rapid access to expensive new treatments lacks transparency and penalises small and low-income countries unable to negotiate lower prices with pharmaceutical manufacturers. Writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, the authors of an essay on market-access agreements for anti-cancer drugs, say that while the underlying strategy is to help reduce the likelihood of health systems paying for treatments that turn out not to be cost-effective, the agreements can also be seen as an opportunistic way for pharmaceutical manufacturers ...
2014-12-09
Donald Trump's ego may be the size of his financial empire, but that doesn't mean he's the picture of mental health. The same can be said about the self-esteem of people who are living from paycheck to paycheck, or unemployed. New research from the University of California, Berkeley, underscores this mind-wallet connection.
UC Berkeley researchers have linked inflated or deflated feelings of self-worth to such afflictions as bipolar disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, anxiety and depression, providing yet more evidence that the widening gulf between rich and ...
2014-12-09
The combined use of spraying insecticide inside homes and insecticide-treated bed nets is no better at protecting children against malaria than using bed nets alone, a study in The Gambia suggests. The findings, published in The Lancet, should encourage donors to invest their limited resources in additional bed nets, the more cost-effective solution to tackling malaria*.
Lead author Professor Steve Lindsay, a disease ecologist at Durham University in the UK explains, "Our findings do not support any universal recommendation for indoor residual spraying as an addition ...
2014-12-09
The mass die-off of nerve cells in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease may largely occur because an entirely different class of brain cells, called microglia, begin to fall down on the job, according to a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
The researchers found that, in mice, blocking the action of a single molecule on the surface of microglia restored the cells' ability to get the job done -- and reversed memory loss and myriad other Alzheimer's-like features in the animals.
The study, to be published online Dec. 8 in ...
2014-12-09
1. Breast density notification laws substantially increase costs yet save few lives
Laws requiring women to be notified of their breast density so that they may discuss supplemental screening options, including ultrasound, with their health care providers would substantially increase costs and save relatively few lives, according to an article published in Annals of Internal Medicine. More than 40 percent of women between the ages of 40 and 74 have dense breast tissue, which puts them at increased risk for breast cancer and affects how well a mammogram can detect abnormalities. ...
2014-12-09
In the most comprehensive look yet at the safety of abortion, researchers at UC San Francisco have concluded that major complications are rare, occurring less than a quarter of a percent of the time, about the same frequency as colonoscopies.
The study, published online on Monday, Dec. 8, 2014, in Obstetrics & Gynecology, analyzed data from more than 50,000 women enrolled in the Medi-Cal fee-for-service program who obtained abortions from 2009 to 2010, and looked for complications that occurred within six weeks of the procedure.
The rate is similar to what has been ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] PRM-151 therapy well tolerated in patients with advanced myelofibrosis
MD Anderson study results presented to American Society of Hematology
