BRAF and COX2 as Targets for Therapy of Thyroid Cancer... -
[Cached Version]
Published on: 2/20/2005
Last Visited: 6/16/2006
But that's begun to change, says Dr. Manisha Shah, assistant professor of internal medicine at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center and a specialist in endocrine tumors at The Ohio State University Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute.Shah says scientists have only recently discovered some of the genetic and biological signatures specific to thyroid cancer, and that may be prompting new interest in thyroid cancer research.In addition, thyroid cancer has emerged as one of the fastest-growing cancers in the United States, increasing in incidence at the rate of 3 percent per year.As a result, investigators are finally attracting the dollars they need to create and study a number of emerging treatments.
Shah and her colleagues in The OSU Comprehensive Cancer Center are conducting clinical trials evaluating two of those new options.One of the studies involves the use of a compound known simply as BAY 43-9006, a new, targeted therapy designed to attack advanced thyroid cancer at its molecular roots.Shah is also directing a second trial examining the popular pain reliever Celebrex as a treatment for metastatic thyroid cancer.
Even though standard treatment is curative in a large majority of patients, the risk of recurrent thyroid cancer doesn't wholly disappear with time.Thyroid cancer can be tricky; it can reappear many years later - as long as 20 to 30 years after the initial diagnosis.At that point, treatment options are often limited.In addition, patients who develop one of the lesser-known and often more aggressive forms of the disease, like anaplastic thyroid cancer, find themselves in a similar situation.
"There just isn't that much out there," says Shah."People may not be aware that chemotherapy really isn't very useful at any point in treating thyroid cancer," she adds.
...
"Metastatic cancer cells overexpress COX-2 like crazy," Shah says."This is a big problem because overexpression of COX-2 stimulates the creation of new blood vessels to feed the tumor's growth, and it inhibits normal cell death, as well," says Shah.Celecoxib is designed to reverse those processes.
Patients enrolled in a Phase II Celebrex study at the OSU James Cancer Hospital simply take two pills twice daily.Those whose tumors shrink or remain stable will stay on the study for at least a year while physicians watch them closely for any signs of side effects.Shah says it is still too early to make any definitive statements about the efficacy of the approach, although it appears that it may be helpful in only a small minority of patients.
Ohio State Drs.Matthew Ringel, associate professor in the department of internal medicine, and Dr. Richard Kloos, associate professor of clinical internal medicine and radiology, are thyroid cancer experts and co-investigators with Shah on the BAY 43-9006 trial.
...
"It is too early to know which, if either, of these new methods under study here is effective in treating our patients," says Shah.
24 online sources [ view sources ]
Profile is not claimed [ claim profile ]
