Identifying patients who benefit most from immune suppressant
Presentations at the 4th IMPAKT Breast Cancer Conference
2012-05-04
(Press-News.org) A new analysis may help doctors identify breast cancer patients who will benefit from treatment with the immune suppressant drug everolimus, say French researchers at the 4th IMPAKT Breast Cancer Conference in Brussels, Belgium.
Everolimus is currently used as an immunosuppressant to prevent patients rejecting transplanted organs and in the treatment of renal cell cancer. Research is also being conducted into the drug's use in other cancers, including breast cancer.
Dr Thomas Bachelot, from Centre Leon Berard in Lyon and colleagues analyzed data from the TAMRAD study, published two years ago[1]. This was the first study to show that in patients whose cancer progressed after treatment with the aromatase inhibitor drug tamoxifen, the time-to-progression could be delayed by the addition of everolimus.
The new study aimed to identify which biological characteristics of the patient's primary tumor could be used to identify those for whom everolimus would be most effective. "This is of great importance, as everolimus is quite toxic and you don't want to give this drug if you're not sure the patient will benefit from it," Dr Bachelot explained.
"The interesting thing is that we did not find what we expected," Dr Bachelot said. The researchers had hypothesized that patients who would benefit the most from this treatment would be those with high expression levels of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinases (or PI3Ks), a family of enzymes involved in cellular functions such as cell growth and proliferation.
"But the opposite seems to be true," Dr Bachelot said. In patients with low PI3K levels, median time-to-progression exceeded 30 months, while in those with high levels, median survival was 6.4 months.
"At the same time, we also found that the low expression of a protein that normally block mTOR activation, LKB1, was associated with a good response to everolimus, while patients with normal levels of this protein did not have the same good response. Those results suggest that patients with an activation of mTOR that is not dependent on PI3K are the ones who may benefit the most from everolimus."
"These are exiting results, as they may allow for a better selection of patients who should receive this very effective but sometimes toxic drug," Dr Bachelot said. The results need to be validated on an independent and larger cohort of patients before any definitive conclusion can be reached, he noted. The researchers hope this will be done in coming months.
Commenting on the study which he was not involved in, Dr Angelo Di Leo, from Hospital of Prato, Italy, former IMPAKT Co-Chair, said: "These are very attractive results, but still preliminary. For the time being we do not have molecular markers that can be used in clinical practice to select patients candidate to this treatment. It will be important to test the identified markers of response to everolimus, in particular PI3K, in the context of the recently presented large phase-III trials."
INFORMATION:
[1] Cancer Res 2010;70(24 Suppl):Abstract nr S1-6
END
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2012-05-04
Breast cancer patients whose tumors express high levels of genes related to immune response are more likely to have their tumor completely eradicated by pre-operative chemotherapy compared to patients with low expression of these genes, Belgian researchers report at the 4th IMPAKT Breast Cancer Conference in Brussels, Belgium.
Their research has identified a group of patients who might be good candidates for treatments with new immune-targeting therapies.
Dr Michail Ignatiadis from Institut Jules Bordet, Brussels, and colleagues analyzed gene expression data from eight ...
2012-05-04
Breast cancer in young women is a biologically unique disease that requires customized management strategies, researchers report at the 4th IMPAKT Breast Cancer Conference, in Brussels, Belgium.
The reported findings have potentially important implications for treatment, because breast cancer in young women is often aggressive and diagnosed at an advanced stage, meaning the prognosis for these patients is often poor.
Dr. Hatem A. Azim Jr., a medical oncologist from Institut Jules Bordet in Brussels, and colleagues showed that breast cancer in women forty-years or younger ...
2012-05-04
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Embryonic stem cells — those revered cells that give rise to every cell type in the body — just got another badge of honor. If they suffer damage that makes them a threat to the developing embryo, they swiftly fall on their swords for the greater good, according to a study published online May 3, 2012 in the journal Molecular Cell.
The finding offers a new glimpse into the private lives of stem cells that could help scientists use them to grow new neurons or other cells to replace those that have been lost in patients with Parkinson's and other diseases. ...
2012-05-04
May 3, 2012, New York, NY—The United States spends more on health care than 12 other industrialized countries yet does not provide "notably superior" care, according to a new study from The Commonwealth Fund. The U.S. spent nearly $8,000 per person in 2009 on health care services, while other countries in the study spent between one-third (Japan and New Zealand) and two-thirds (Norway and Switzerland) as much. While the U.S. performs well on breast and colorectal cancer survival rates, it has among the highest rates of potentially preventable deaths from asthma and amputations ...
2012-05-04
LA JOLLA, CA – May 3, 2012 - What genetic changes account for the vast behavioral differences between humans and other primates? Researchers so far have catalogued only a few, but now it seems that they can add a big one to the list. A team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute has shown that an extra copy of a brain-development gene, which appeared in our ancestors' genomes about 2.4 million years ago, allowed maturing neurons to migrate farther and develop more connections.
Surprisingly, the added copy doesn't augment the function of the original gene, ...
2012-05-04
PULLMAN, Wash.—Washington State University researchers have found that ovarian disease can result from exposures to a wide range of environmental chemicals and be inherited by future generations.
WSU reproductive biologist Michael Skinner and his laboratory colleagues looked at how a fungicide, pesticide, plastic, dioxin and hydrocarbon mixtures affected a gestating rat's progeny for multiple generations. They saw subsequent generations inherit ovarian disease by "epigenetic transgenerational inheritance." Epigenetics regulates how genes are turned on and off in tissues ...
2012-05-04
Patients in an intensive care unit (ICU) often become confused or delirious soon after, or within a few days of, admittance to the ICU. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Critical Care shows that use of earplugs can result in better sleep (as reported by the patients), lower the incidence of confusion, and delay the onset of cognitive disturbances.
Patients in the ICU are thought to suffer confusion and delirium due to sensory overload. Part of this is due to the physical injuries and sensations of the patients and part due to their environment. ...
2012-05-04
Researchers studying pigmentation in the South Pacific have uncovered a key genetic contribution to hair colour. The findings, published in Science, reveal a functional genetic variant which has led the islanders to have simultaneously the darkest skin pigmentation outside of Africa and the highest prevalence of blonde hair outside of Europe.
Human skin and hair colour varies considerably both within and among populations. Previous studies have shown that pigmentation is largely heritable but also suggest it has evolved to adapt to the sun's ultraviolet rays — with populations ...
2012-05-04
Alexandria, VA – The North Star, the Pole Star, the Guiding Star, Polaris: Its many names reflect the many centuries humans have gazed northward to it for guidance. However, recent studies have shown that the North Star is losing mass at a significant rate. Will Polaris, steadfast beacon for early sailors and adventurers alike, vanish from the night sky?
Hilding Neilson of the Argelander Institute of Astronomy at the University of Bonn in Germany thinks that he and his colleagues have unlocked the answer to the North Star's decreasing mass. Although the North Star's peculiar ...
2012-05-04
The latest cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention guidelines have been overhauled to produce a user friendly document with concise messages that awards greater weight than ever before to evidence from clinical trials and observational population studies. The "European Guidelines on Cardiovascular Disease Prevention in Clinical Practice (version 2012)" ¹ were launched at the EuroPRevent2012 meeting in Dublin, Ireland.
"In the past, implementation of prevention guidelines could undoubtedly have been better. So in a radical departure we've designed the guidelines in a ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Identifying patients who benefit most from immune suppressant
Presentations at the 4th IMPAKT Breast Cancer Conference
