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NEW ORLEANS, La., Mar 26, 2001 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- An anticancer extract derived from the spine of the dogfish shark appears to double the survival time for patients suffering from deadly kidney cancer -- giving patients who have exhausted all other options an extra 8 months of life.
"This new data is also very encouraging," said Dr. Ronald Bukowski, director of experimental therapeutics program at the Cleveland Clinic Cancer Center and one of the principal investigators who studied the drug, Neovastat, produced by Aeterna Laboratories Inc., Quebec City, Canada.
In the study, presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in New Orleans, La., researchers said that patients who received a higher dose of Neovastat survived for an average of 16.3 months, compared to 7.1 months for patients who received a lower dose of the drug.
"The average life expectancy for a person with renal cell cancer who is progressing after exhausting all options is about eight months," said Dr. William Li, MD, president of the Angiogenisis Foundation and a faculty member at both Harvard and Tufts universities, Boston.
"The Neovastat study is among the first anti-angiogenesis reports where scientists have shown a statistically significant survival benefit," Li said. "Survival benefit is the Holy Grail of cancer treatment."
Anti-angiogenesis is a strategy being developed by numerous companies. The concept assumes that by preventing cancer cells from recruiting a nourishing blood supply, the tumor won't be able to grow or spread, and it will become vulnerable to the body's defenses. Researchers said Neovastat interferes with the cancer cell's ability to signal the recruitment of blood vessels through a protein called vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and the drug also inhibits molecules known as matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) which are involved in the breakdown of tissues that is essential for growth of blood vessels.
In addition, Pierre Falardeau, vice president for scientific affairs at Aeterna, said Neovastat appears to cause programmed cell death -- a process known as apoptosis -- in blood vessels that are recruited. "Neovastat appears to use at least three separate pathways to inhibit angiogenesis," he said.
Falardeau said that Neovastat should not be confused with over-the-counter tablets of shark cartilage. Neovastat is administered as a liquid taken twice a day, he said, and is derived from the spine of the dogfish shark, while the commerical tablets are taken mainly from the fins of the shark.
"We use the dogfish shark," he said, "because six percent of its body is cartilage. It has nothing to do with the myth that sharks don't get cancer." Any cartilage would do, he said, if processes properly. But cattle, for example, only have about 0.5 percent of their weight in cartilage.
The dogfish shark is considered a waste fish by fishermen, Li said. The meat of the fish is usually harvested for fish-and-chip meals. The cartilaginous spine of the shark is usually discarded, but Aeterna harvests this food industry waste and turns it into a medical quality product. Li said that while the Aeterna reports are encouraging, he said the trial is limited by small numbers of patients in the early stage trials -- there were 22 patients in the study reported at the AACR meeting; and there was no placebo group in the reports.
Dr. Pierre Champagne, principal director of clinical research at Aeterna, said Neovastat is now being tested in three pivotal cancer trials that could lead to licensing of the drug, possibly by then end of 2002. The drug is being tested again in renal cell cancer, lung cancer and multiple myeloma -- a blood cell disease.
Li said other studies with anti-angiogenesis drugs have shown trends toward success, but nothing as dramatic as the work being reported by the Aeterna scientists. He said numerous companies are developing a myriad of anti-angiogenic agents.
By ED SUSMAN, UPI Science News
Copyright 2001 by United Press International.
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