First human trails of prostate cancer drug shock doctors

[Guest guest]

I thought this was very interesting for two reasons. We all struggle with our

immune systems and this is drug that sounds like it would work for us as well. I

also wonder if this drug will also disappear to the abyss for cure potential.

Pharmaceutical companies can't make profits off drugs that cure or tests that

detect too early such as Ovacheck and potential cures and tests that detect too

early end up being blocked.

Doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota announced on Saturday details

surrounding the first human trials of a prostate cancer drug called Ipilimumab.

In their initial results, the doctors said, two men who were expected to die

made dramatic recoveries after just a single dose.

One of the doctors said, according to a report in Saturday's Independent, that

the results are akin to the first time a human broke the sound barrier, calling

it " one of the holy grails of prostate cancer research. "

The UK paper reported:

Rodger and Fructuoso Solano-Revuelta were diagnosed with advanced

prostate cancer and sought treatment at the Mayo Clinic.

They were told the disease had spread beyond the prostate. Mr 's cancer

was encroaching on the abdomen and Mr Solano-Revuelta's tumour was the size of a

golf ball. Patients in such condition are told they may have only months to

live, and are normally only offered palliative care. But after one infusion of

the drug ipilimumab, a monoclonal antibody that stimulates the immune system,

given with conventional hormone therapy, their tumours shrank enough to be

surgically removed. Both men have since made a full recovery and returned to

their businesses.

The pair were part of a trial involving 108 patients, half of whom received the

experimental drug. The trial is ongoing but the improvement of the two patients

was so dramatic and unexpected that they were removed from the study so they

could undergo curative surgery.

Dr Kwon said yesterday: " Halfway through the trial we began seeing remarkable

responses. Some patients had dramatic shrinkage of their tumours so practically

all traces had disappeared. We had thought we might get some incremental delay

in the progression of the cancer. It had not dawned on us that we might go from

an inoperable tumour to an operable one. That just doesn't happen. "

The doctors said that once surgery began on their first subject, there was a

question as to whether they had the right patient because the cancer was so hard

to find. What was once an inoperable tumor shrank so dramatically that doctors

were able to operate and remove the growth.

They did add one bit of caution: While the first human trials of Ipilimumab

yielded wildly successful results, both men had undergone hormone therapy which

can, in some cases, shrink the tumors by itself. Nevertheless, added Dr. Eugene

Kwon, " These were patients for whom there was no hope. The course of their

disease has been altered in a dramatic fashion. ... [but] we have to complete

our studies. "

Ipilimumab, being developed by Bristol-Myers Squibb and Medarex, " is a fully

human antibody that binds to CTLA-4 (cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen

4), a molecule on T-cells that is believed to play a critical role in regulating

natural immune responses, " the drug makers said. " The absence or presence of

CTLA-4 can augment or suppress the immune system's T-cell response in fighting

disease. Ipilimumab is designed to block the activity of CTLA-4, thereby

sustaining an active immune response in its attack on cancer cells. "

The Mayo Clinic plans to launch a larger trial of Ipilimumab this fall. Dr.

Kwon's trials are ongoing and will be the subject of a peer-reviewed study

sometime in the future.

But for now, for all the sufferers of prostate cancer and their loved ones,

there's new hope.

C. Webster

http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/06/first-human-trials-of-prostate-cancer-drug-shoc\

k-doctors/