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Washington, D.C. — A new approach to cancer therapy has demonstrated promising results in treating human breast and ovarian tumors growing in mice.
Collaborating scientists from Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C., McGill University in Montreal and the Weizmann Institute in Israel have successfully stopped breast and ovarian tumor growth in mice using a new compound called Exherin.
The new approach targets the adhesion system that blood vessel cells use to connect to each other. Treatment of tumors with Exherin results in breaking apart the blood vessels that feed the tumor. Exherin was discovered at McGill following 10 years of basic research and first found to be effective against cancer at Georgetown.
"Disrupting cell adhesion in tumor blood vessels is a very new and promising approach to fighting cancer. Our entire research team is very excited about the potential for Exherin," said Dr. Stephen Byers, professor at Georgetown University. "Our studies are preliminary, but we are hopeful that further research will continue to have positive results," added Dr. Sandra McLeskey, assistant professor at Georgetown University and a lead researcher on the project.
"Testing in my lab showed that Exherin stopped tumor growth," said Dr. Riaz Farookhi, associate professor at McGill University and chief scientist of Adherex Technologies INc., an Ottawa based company created specifically to develop therapies using cell adhesion.
The ability of cancer cells to mutate and develop resistance to traditional cancer drugs has been a major obstacle in developing effective therapies. By targeting the blood vessels that feed the tumor rather than the tumor itself, researchers are able to bypass the common problem of cancer cells developing resistance to the anti-cancer drugs. Targeting cell adhesion is a new approach to cancer therapy. It differs from current drug therapies that seek to stop new blood vessel growth (anti-angiogenesis). In contrast, Exherin acts on both pre-existing tumor blood vessels as well as new vessels being formed. If successful, this anti-adhesive approach will be faster and may not require treatment over a long period of time.
This year, 175,000 American women will start a battle with breast cancer and another 25,000 will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer. In 1997, over six million people died of cancer worldwide. Mortality from cancer is expected to double by 2027 unless a new therapy is found.
Adherex hopes to start clinical trials of Exherin with human cancer patients in late 2000. The ongoing testing of Exherin is being led by Dr. Byers and Dr. McLeskey at Georgetown, Dr. Blaschuk and Dr. Farookhi at McGill and Dr. Benjamin Geiger and Dr. Michael Neeman at the Weizmann Institute. Patent rights for Exherin are owned by McGill University and licensed to Adherex.
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