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Press Release
Researchers Identify New Kidney Cancer Treatment
For immediate release May 31, 2000
Researchers from the Department of Veterans Affairs and colleagues have identified a promising new treatment for kidney cancer. Using a laboratory-developed analog of somatostatin, a hypothalamic hormone which inhibits the release of growth hormone, scientists were able to target specific receptors on tumor sites and reverse cancer growth. They report their findings in the June 1 issue of Cancer Research.
"This analog is super potent. The targeted chemotherapy inhibited the tumors beautifully," said Andrew V. Schally, Ph.D., M.D.H.C., distinguished medical research scientist at the New Orleans VA Medical Center and leader of the research group. Dr. Schally, also a professor of medicine at Tulane University, received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1977.
The analog used in the study, AN-238, has previously been shown effective in the treatment of prostate and breast cancers and brain tumors. This is the first application of the cytotoxic (cell-destroying) compound in renal cell carcinoma (RCC), the most common form of kidney cancer. RCC is diagnosed in an estimated 28,000 Americans each year and nearly 12,000 people died from the disease in 1999. These latest findings represent a great stride toward treatment of a cancer that has been resistant to both chemotherapy and radiation and has a very low survival rate.
Schally and his colleagues used two types of human RCC tumors (SW-839 and 786-0) implanted in nude mice for their research. They injected the mice with AN-238 at one, eight and twenty-one days. After five weeks of treatment, the volume of SW-839 tumors had decreased 67.2 percent and the 786-0 tumors had decreased 78.3 percent.
Researchers also compared the use of AN-238 to AN-201, a component of AN-238, and examined the effect of each on metastases of RCC. After six weeks of treatment, 83 percent (five out of six) of the animals in the control and AN-201 groups developed metastases to the lymph nodes, but only 14 percent (one out of seven) of the AN-238 group showed lymphatic spread. Lung metastases were found in 83 percent of the control mice and 50 percent of the AN-201 group, but none appeared in the AN-238-treated animals.
Schally likens AN-238 to Paul Ehrlich’s "magic bullet." Ehrlich, recipient of the 1908 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, said "we must learn to fight microbes with magic bullets." Ehrlich himself discovered the magic bullet, salvarsan, that was long used to treat syphilis. Schally said scientists tell him "the world has been waiting one hundred years for this compound."
AN-238 consists of 2-pyrrolinodoxorubicin (AN-201), a superactive cytotoxic agent, linked to a somatostatin (SST) carrier octapeptide. The analog works by targeting SST receptors on the surface of RCC tumors and subsequently inhibiting, even reversing, their growth. The form used in this study was developed by Attila Nagy, Ph.D., a co-author of the paper.
Schally said further research is needed to determine the toxicity of AN-238 in RCC treatment. He does not anticipate any complications in receiving FDA approval.
The lead author of the paper is Artur Plonowski. Co-authors include Schally, Nagy, Hippokratis Kiaris, Francine Hebert and Gabor Halmos. Their work was supported by the Department of Veterans Affairs and Tulane University.
For additional information on these findings, please contact Dr. Andrew Schally, (504) 589-5230.
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