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Friday, July 12, 2013

Human trials for wonder drug that shrinks cancerous tumours to begin in America


A drug that helps the immune system to break down cancerous tumors has been developed and is set to begin human testing early next year.
The drug, developed by researchers at the University of Stanford, has been successful on different of cancers - including  breast, bowel, prostate, ovarian and brain - and could even be a cure, they said.
The drug's effectiveness centers on its relationship with a protein called CD47, which is found on the surface of cancer cells in high quantities.
The protein prevents the cancer from being engulfed and eaten by immune cells called macrophages, which serve as the body's garbage trucks by eating old or damaged cells.
Cure? A protein called CD47 (pictured) is found on the surface of tumors and prevents them from being broken down by the body - but a new drug stops CD47 from having this power
Cure? A protein called CD47 (pictured) is found on the surface of tumors and prevents them from being broken down by the body - but a new drug stops CD47 from having this power
The researchers made antibodies that would bind to the CD-47 on the cancer cell so that when a macrophage came along, it did not see CD-47 on the cell and engulfed everything.
So when the drug masked this 'don't-eat-me signal', it allowed the immune system to attack the cancer, destroying some entirely and shrinking others.
 

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Tests on mice showed it to work on a broad range of cancers and with minimal side-effects. Given to mice with human tumors, the antibody made them shrink and, in some cases, disappear.
Scientist: Dr Irv Weissman developed the drug, which will be tested on patients as early as February
Scientist: Dr Irv Weissman developed the drug, which will be tested on patients as early as February
When the CD47 antibodies were injected into the mice, they produced positive results for all types of cancer, research showed.
The journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which first published the findings of Dr Irv Weissman earlier this year, adds that the drug 'dramatically' increased survival rates.
Dr Weissman, from the Stanford University School of Medicine, said: 'Blocking this "don't-eat-me" signal inhibits the growth in mice of nearly every human cancer we tested, with minimal toxicity.
'This shows conclusively that this protein, CD47, is a legitimate and promising target for human cancer therapy.'
Now the lab has received a $20 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to conduct studies on humans.
Weissman told The Great Falls Tribune that the trials will start in 2014, as early as February or as late as April, depending on when it is cleared with the Food and Drug Administration.
The team of researchers at Stanford plan on starting a small 10-100 person phase I clinical human trial of the cancer therapy next year, with the focus on leukemia patients.
A similar trial will take place in the United Kingdom, the Tribune reported.
At work: The drug was developed at Stanford University's School of Medicine and the team has received a $20 million grant to launch the tests. It will take five years to know if they have been effective
At work: The drug was developed at Stanford University's School of Medicine and the team has received a $20 million grant to launch the tests. It will take five years to know if they have been effective
But Weissman told the paper he was approaching the study with some apprehension.
'Everybody should know that no matter how good studies are, no matter how strong the principle is, when you get to humans there could be variations in humans that could make it not work, so we're prepared for that,' he said.
Weissman added that it will take at least five years after the completion of the trial to determine whether their CD-47 trial is even successful.
The New York Post added that people are already rushing to sign up to be part of the potentially ground-breaking study.

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To the gullible conspiracy nuts. Drug patents last for 20 years, it take 10 years and millions to develop a new drug. So a pharmaceutical company will only have 10 years of no competition. Bearing in mind the millions it took to develop the drug, they would be better off selling hemp oil, or apricot seeds, or baking soda, because they can profit from it immediately and they didn't have to spend millions on research. But they don't do this, because these things don't work! And what good is a dead person to a pharmaceutical company. Go and count chemtrials
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I hope it works. But I am not optimistic about it. Too many times I have been disappointed.
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Cue gullible conspiracy nuts.
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leokingss - Those websites that take advantage of your gullibility,well they're just marketing scams to get money from people and give them false hope. By the way, lemon juice is an acid so it lowers pH, while baking soda is an alkaline so it raises pH. You clearly have small knowledge.
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leokingss - Those websites that take advantage of your gullibility,well they're just marketing scams to get money from people and give them false hope. By the way, lemon juice is an acid so it lowers pH, while baking soda is an alkaline so it raises pH.
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Almost daily the DM so-called 'science' and medical journalists make unwarranted and outrageous claims for some piece of half-understood vestigial research which the researchers themselves warn may not even work in humans. This is cruel because it gives false hope to so many poor desperate people.
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All of the money spent on war machines of death could be put to better use, just like this!
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As a Cancer survivor I would put more value on prevention over a cure, unfortunately that would stuff the profits of the pharmaceuticals which are to be protected at any cost. Positive news though if it saves anyone else going through Chemo.
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Will the NHS be able to afford it ..
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This is exciting news, and I look forward to working with it - I work in cancer trials. Sometimes I wish that news like this doesn't reach the public domain until we're in Phase III trial, with positive results, because the whole clinical trial process takes so long, and the pubic tend to think we're doing nothing! Drugs are so expensive when they reach patients, because an eye watering amount of money has been spent to get it to that stage, and from that one drug, the money helps cover the drugs/trials that haven't had a positive outcome. Any new drug (or being used in different setting), has to better than anything else currently available, whether this is in terms of tumour reduction, stabilisation of disease, increased survival, less side effects etc. There have been tremendous breakthroughs in recent years, and I look forward to many more
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