New agent arrests vessel formation in ovarian and breast cancers.(Brief Article)

2002 SEP 19 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Sonia Nichols, senior medical writer - A new agent developed by researchers at Lilly Research Laboratories can knock down ovarian and breast cancer growth.

The agent, known as 317615.2HC1, destroys tumors by blocking a major property of tumor growth, angiogenesis. According to B.A. Teicher and colleagues at the Indianapolis, Indiana, research center, 317615.HC1 used in combination with the chemotherapies carboplatin or paclitaxel extended survival in xenografted mice implanted with human breast or ovarian cancer cells.

In preliminary experiments, 317615.2HC1 alone was not very effective, allowing MX-1 breast cancer cells and SKOV-2 ovarian cancer cells held in culture to continue to grow. However, when used alone or with chemotherapy in animals, it elicited different outcomes.

"Exposure of SKOV-3 to paclitaxel or carboplatin along with 317615.2HC1 resulted in cell survivals that reflected additivity of 317615.2HC1 with paclitaxel and greater-than-additive cytotoxicity with carboplatin," researchers explained.

When they examined murine xenografts, they found that a combination of 317615.2HC1 and chemotherapy reduced the number of tumor vessels up to 43% in MX-1 tumors and up to 75% in SKOV-3 tumors.

"317615.2HC1 was an active antitumor agent against the MX-1 xenograft and increased the tumor growth delay produced by paclitaxel by 1.7-fold and the tumor growth delay produced by carboplatin by 3.8-fold," ...