Drug shows promise for childhood brain tumors

The early stage trial tested the effects of GDC-0449 on drug-resistant medulloblastomas, the most common form of brain tumor found in children.

Developed by U.S. biotech firms Curis and Genentec, the latter owned by Swiss pharmaceutical group Roche since 2009, the drug works by blocking the so-called “Hedgehog” pathway.

The pathway is key to regulating cell growth and is implicated in around 20 percent of medulloblastomas, as well as other cancers.

The trial involved just 13 children, 12 of whom tolerated the drug without any significant side effects. One of the children in the trial went a year on the drug without any tumor progression.

In a previous case, a young adult with medulloblastoma experienced a similarly positive result, according to Amar Gajjar, director of the Neuro-Oncology Division at St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Tennessee and lead investigator in the research.

“Some patients have remained on this trial for extended periods of time, and our early results are positive and encouraging,” he said at a press conference during the annual meeting of cancer researchers.

“The trend in treating children with these cancers is toward targeted therapies like this one, which block key signaling pathways and disable the cancer's ability to function or reproduce,” he added.

Another study presented Sunday showed new ways to slow the return of certain types of ovarian cancer in women who have undergone chemotherapy.

The research analyzed the effect of giving a drug called Avastin to women suffering from advanced epithelial ovarian cancer, primary peritoneal cancer or fallopian tube cancer.

1|2|Next Page>>

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email