[ CancerWeb Home
| Comments
| CancerWeb Report Index ]
The CancerWeb Report, What's New In Cancer
Cancer Therapy and Treatment: December 1995
Last modified on:
Tuesday, April 20, 1999 13:03:12
Copyright © 1994-2008, Information Ventures, Inc.
Interleukin-12 Therapy -
It was hoped that biological therapy of cancer would provide
therapy in a natural way, taking advantage of what are called
biological response modifiers to fine-tune or stimulate the
body's own defense mechanisms. One recent finding appeared to
throw one of these biological agents, interleukin-12, for a loop.
There were two deaths and harm to most of 17 renal cancer
patients taking multiple doses of IL-12. This totally unexpected
finding occurred because of the way treatment was scheduled. If
single doses are used, or if multiple doses follow single doses
with a rest period in between, the toxicity does not appear. IL-
12 shifts the balance of helper T1 and helper T2 lymphocytes, and
once this has been accomplished by the first single dose,
starting multiple doses, say a week or so later, the problem does
not arise. (Science 10 November, 1995).
Stealth Liposomes -
We have discussed previously the use of liposomes, organized fat
globules containing drugs, as a selective method of drug
delivery. One problem encountered with this technology is that
the body has a unique "garbage disposal system" - a series of
cells called the reticuloendothelial system (RES). This is
charged with taking up and eliminating strange bodies and
molecules; liposomes certainly qualify for this! A group at the
Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, NY, in collaboration
with Liposome Technology of Menlo Park, California, has developed
"Stealth Liposomes." These contain polyethylene glycol linked to
the fat of the liposome. This makes them more rigid, less
susceptible to attack by the RES, and much more persistent in the
circulation. In the November, 1995 issue of the British Journal of
Cancer (Vaage, J, p 1074), it was reported that weekly treatments
of mice with stealth liposome-encapsulated doxorubicin, started
when their breast tumors were shedding cells into the
circulation, reduced the incidence of metastases from 24/27 to
3/23 and raised the survival of the group from 59 to 88.7 days, a
50% increase. Toxicity was minor, less than 5% weight loss,
whereas the same dose of free drug killed the mice.
Copyright (c) 1994-2008, Information Ventures, Inc.
Mail us at: Customer-Service@infoventures.com
http://infoventures.com