Study pinpoints malignant mesothelioma patients likely to benefit from drug pemetrexed

Low TS along with high FPGS predicts response

2012-08-30

(Press-News.org) Previous studies have hypothesized that low levels of the enzyme thymidylate synthase (TS) likely mark patients who will benefit from the drug pemetrexed – but results have been inconclusive at best and at times contradictory. A University of Colorado Cancer Center study recently published in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology provides an explanation why: only in combination with high levels of a second enzyme, FPGS, does low TS predict response to pemetrexed in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma.

"The hope is that oncologists could test a patient for TS and FPGS levels and so discover if the patient should be treated with pemetrexed or if another therapy might be more appropriate," says the paper's first author, Daniel C. Christoph, MD, PhD, medical oncologist at the West German Cancer Center, working as an international postdoctoral researcher in the lab of CU Cancer Center investigator, Fred Hirsch, MD, PhD.

Pemetrexed works by inhibiting the enzyme TS, which cancer cells need in order to replicate their DNA. So it stands to reason that tumors already low in TS would be most affected by the drug – blocking the remaining TS would effectively stop the ability of cancer cells to synthesize new DNA. However, Christoph and colleagues tested 84 samples of mesothelioma in which patients had been treated with pemetrexed and found that low levels of TS only in combination with concurrently high levels of FPGS predicted patients' response to the drug.

The study also explained the mechanism by which FPGS increases the clinical effectiveness of pemetrexed:

"High levels of FPGS allow pemetrexed to stay longer inside cells, giving the drug longer to work against TS," Christoph says. Of the samples tested, patients with low TS and high FPGS had more response to pemetrexed and longer durations of survival.

According to Christoph, the current study provides the preclinical work needed to justify exploring the predictive power of TS and FPGS in mesothelioma patients. A prospective observational study of these biomarkers could lead to their wide use in predicting patients' response to pemetrexed.

### END

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

For diabetics, a steady job is good for your health

2012-08-30

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—If you're diabetic or prone to diabetes, having a steady job appears to be good for your health, and not just because of the insurance coverage. A new University of Michigan study found that that jobless working-age people with diabetes are less likely to adhere to their oral anti-diabetic medications than diabetics who are employed. Further, people of working age with diabetes are more likely to be unemployed than those who do not have diabetes. The lack of a clear-cut, cause-and-effect relationship between insurance and medication adherence surprised ...

Soil Science Society of America announces 2012 award recipients

2012-08-30

MADISON, WI - Aug. 29, 2012 – The Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) announces the following 2012 awards that will be formally presented during their Annual Meetings, Oct. 21-24, 2012 in Cincinnati, OH. Susan Brantley, Earth and Environmental Systems Institute at Penn State - SSSA Presidential Award: Susan Brantley is Distinguished Professor of Geosciences in the Department of Geosciences at Pennsylvania State University. She received her B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees in Geological and Geophysical Sciences from Princeton University. Daniel Hillel, Columbia University ...

Nurse leader resistance perceived as a barrier to high-quality, evidence-based patient care

2012-08-30

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A new national survey of more than 1,000 registered nurses suggests that serious barriers - including resistance from nursing leaders - prevent nurses from implementing evidence-based practices that improve patient outcomes. When survey respondents ranked these barriers, the top five included resistance from nursing leaders and nurse managers - a finding that hasn't been reported in previous similar studies - as well as politics and organizational cultures that avoid change. When asked what would help them implement evidence-based practice, respondents ...

African-American males most likely to lose academic scholarships, MU study finds

2012-08-30

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- College student retention and low graduation rates are the most significant problems associated with state-provided financial aid. Now, a University of Missouri researcher has found that African-American males are the most likely to lose state lottery-funded scholarships with academic stipulations. Charles Menifield, a professor in the Truman School of Public Affairs at MU, found that more than 50 percent of African-American males lost state-funded scholarships over the course of a four-year academic career. "Race turns out to be one of the best predictors ...

New Nature study illuminates 55 million years of the carbon cycle and climate history

2012-08-30

A study in the August 30 issue of Nature provides, in unprecedented detail, the history of a crucial indicator of the relationship between the carbon cycle and climate processes over the past 55 million years. Over this time period, when the Earth is known to have transitioned from "hothouse" to "icehouse" conditions, the oceans also experienced a dramatic shift in the carbonate compensation depth, or CCD. Defined as the depth below which carbonate minerals (such as calcite) dissolve completely, the CCD is known to fluctuate over time – it shallows during warm periods, ...

Computer viruses could take a lesson from showy peacocks

2012-08-30

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Computer viruses are constantly replicating throughout computer networks and wreaking havoc. But what if they had to find mates in order to reproduce? In the current issue of Evolution, Michigan State University researchers created the digital equivalent of spring break to see how mate attraction played out through computer programs, said Chris Chandler, MSU postdoctoral researcher at MSU's BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action. "This is actually a big question that still generates a lot of debate," said Chandler, who co-authored the ...

Eyeless Australian fish have closest relatives in Madagascar

2012-08-30

A team of researchers from Louisiana State University and the American Museum of Natural History has discovered that two groups of blind cave fishes on opposite sides of the Indian Ocean are each other's closest relatives. Through comprehensive DNA analysis, the researchers determined that these eyeless fishes, one group from Madagascar and the other from similar subterranean habitats in Australia, descended from a common ancestor before being separated by continental drift nearly 100 million years ago. Their study, which appears in the journal PLOS ONE this week, also ...

Heatwaves to move toward coasts, study finds

2012-08-30

A new study by researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, suggests that the nature of California heatwaves is changing due to global warming. Climate researchers Alexander Gershunov and Kristen Guirguis detected a trend toward more humid heatwaves that are expressed very strongly in elevated nighttime temperatures, a trend consistent with climate change projections. Moreover, relative to local warming, the mid-summer heatwaves are getting stronger in generally cooler coastal areas. This carries implications for the millions of Californians living ...

Physics faculty try innovative teaching methods

2012-08-30

A study of physics faculty awareness and use of research-based instructional techniques offers greater understanding of what is missing from current education reform efforts The world has changed dramatically in recent decades but many argue that the university system has not kept pace. As another academic year begins, if you peek into any introductory college science course you're likely to find the same scene as you would have twenty years ago: An instructor writing equations on the blackboard while a lecture hall full of students take notes. Why is college science ...

Study shows hope of greater global food output, less environmental impact of agriculture

2012-08-30

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (08/29/2012) —Can we have enough to eat and a healthy environment, too? Yes—if we're smart about it, suggests a study published in Nature this week by a team of researchers from the University of Minnesota and McGill University in Montreal. Global demand for food is expected to double by 2050 due to population growth and increased standards of living. To meet this demand, it is often assumed we will need to expand the environmental burden of agriculture. The paper, based on analysis of agricultural data gathered from around the world, offers hope ...

China, the world's largest tea producer, is predicted to experience increases in land suitable for tea-growing under climate change, with the overall range shifting northwards, per AI modeling study

Bears and pandas in captivity develop significantly different gut microbiomes compared to their wild counterparts, and giant pandas in particular have less diverse microbiomes than their wild counterp

Study pinpoints malignant mesothelioma patients likely to benefit from drug pemetrexed

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: