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Old 07-23-2011, 10:42 PM   #21
gdpawel
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Has the Era of Genomics as we Know it Come and Gone?

Dr. Robert Nagourney, one of the pioneers of cell culture assays, has often described his personal misgivings surrounding the application of gene profiles for the prediction of response to therapeutics. His initial concerns regarded the oversimplification of biological processes and the attempt of analyte-driven investigators to ascribe linear pathways to non-linear events.

The complexities of human tumor biology took a turn toward the incomprehensible with the publication of a lead article in Nature by the group from Harvard under Dr. Pier Paulo Pandolfi. Dr. Nagourney sat in as Dr. Pandolfi reviewed his work during the Pezcoler Award lecture, held Monday, April 4, 2011, in Orlando at the AACR meeting.

What Dr. Pandolfi’s group found was that gene regulation is under the control of messenger RNA (mRNA) that are made both by coding regions and non-coding regions of the DNA. By competing for small interfering RNAs (siRNA) the gene and pseudogene mRNAs regulate one another. That is to say that RNA speaks to RNA and determines what genes will be expressed.

To put this in context, Dr. Pandolfi’s findings suggest that the 2 percent of the human genome that codes for known proteins (the part that everyone currently studies) represents only 1/20 of the whole story. One of the most important cancer related genes (PTEN), is under the regulation of 250 separate, unrelated genes. Thus, PTEN, KRAS and all genes, are under the direct regulation and control of genetic elements that no one has ever studied.

This observation represents one more nail in the coffin of unidimensional thinkers who have attempted to draw straight lines from genes to functions. This further suggests that attempts on the part of gene profilers to characterize patients likelihoods of response based on gene mutations are not only misguided but, may actually be dishonest.

The need for phenotype analyses like the functional profiling performed at Rational Therapeutics has never been greater. As the systems biologists point out, complexity is the hallmark of biological existence. Attempts to oversimplify phenomena that cannot be simplified, have, and will continue to, lead us in the wrong direction.

Literature Citation: Poliseno, L., et al. 2010. A coding-independent function of gene and pseudogene mRNAs regulates tumor biology. Nature. 2010 Jun 24; 465(7301):1016-7.)

Last edited by gdpawel; 08-17-2011 at 01:19 AM.. Reason: edit
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Old 08-15-2011, 12:34 AM   #22
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Personalized Cancer Cytometrics More Accurate than Molecular Gene Testing

Clinical Trial Finds Personalized Cancer Cytometrics More Accurate than Molecular Gene Testing

In the first head-to-head clinical trial comparing gene expression patterns with Personalized Cancer Cytometric testing (also known as “functional tumor cell profiling” or “chemosensitivity testing”), Personalized Cancer Cytometrics was found to be substantially more accurate.

In a clinical trial involving ovarian cancer patients, patterns of gene expression identified through molecular gene testing were compared with results of Personalized Cancer Cytometric testing (in which whole, living cancer cells are exposed to candidate chemotherapy drugs). Four different genes were included in the molecular part of the study. The four genes were selected as those which researchers believe to have the greatest likelihood of accurately predicting individual patient response to specific anti-cancer drugs.

Study Results:

For two of the genes studied, there was no significant correlation between gene expression pattern and patient response. In other words, results for these genes were found to be meaningless. For the third gene studied, there was a 75% correlation between expression and patient response. This means that the gene was 75% accurate when it came to identifying an active drug for that patient. For the fourth gene studied, the accuracy in identifying an active drug was only 25%. In marked contrast, Personalized Cancer Cytometric testing was found by the researchers to be 90% accurate in identifying active drugs for ovarian cancer patients in this study.

Discussion:

Molecular testing – that is, testing for gene expression patterns – is widely studied and heavily promoted as a method to identify effective chemotherapy drugs for individual cancer patients. However, most studies of molecular testing carried-out to date show only modest correlation or no correlation between test results and actual patient response. In other words, much work remains to be done before molecular gene testing can be regarded as an accurate tool for chemotherapy selection. And yet in this, first ever, head-to-head study of test accuracy, Personalized Cancer Cytometrics was found to be highly accurate when it came to identifying effective drugs.

Comparing this study with previous studies:

Although this was the first head-to-head trial, the accuracy levels found in this trial for Personalized Cancer Cytometric testing are strikingly consistent with those documented in dozens of previous studies, published by respected cancer researchers around the world. In those studies, as in this one, extremely high levels of correlation (in other words, high levels of test accuracy) were found for Personalized Cancer Cytometrics.

Arienti et al. Peritoneal carcinomatosis from ovarian cancer: chemosensitivity test and tissue markers as predictors of response to chemotherapy. Journal of Translational Medicine 2011, 9:94.

http://www.translational-medicine.com/content/9/1/94
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Old 09-21-2011, 11:34 PM   #23
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Research in Combining Targeted Agents Faces Numerous Challenges

By Margot J. Fromer
ASCO Post
September 1, 2011, Volume 2, Issue 13

If the clinical trials endeavor in oncology is falling short of its goals and if targeted agents have not kept their promise, can a new approach to drug development provide a solution?

Very possibly, said John Hohneker, MD, Chair of the Workshop Planning Committee for the conference, “Facilitating Collaborations to Develop Combination Investigational Cancer Therapies,” held in Washington in mid-June and sponsored by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) National Cancer Policy Forum. He is also Senior Vice President and Global Head of Development, Integrated Hospital Care, Novartis.

Dr. Hohneker said that the purpose of the workshop was to talk about the many barriers to this new approach to cancer treatment. “Combining investigational products early in their development is thought to be a promising strategy, especially when they target multiple pathways (or more than one step in a pathway), thus conferring greater benefit than therapy directed at a single target.”

Unfulfilled Promise

Jane Perlmutter, PhD, founder of the Gemini Group, a consulting company, added, “The problem with the way cancer research is conducted is that the biology of the disease is so complicated that, although technology keeps advancing, personalized medicine is still mostly only a promise.”

Targeted agents for cancer haven’t panned out to the extent hoped. Although a few might work sometimes or for a short time, the effects have not been significant or durable. And many are more toxic than expected. “Their regulation is confusing and/or interpreted too conservatively, and despite the great need, there is limited incentive for pharmaceutical companies to collaborate with each other,” said Dr. Perlmutter.

Advances in genomics and cell biology have paved the way for increasingly sophisticated targeted therapies, but cellular pathways contain redundancies that can be activated in response to inhibition of one or another pathway, thus promoting emergence of resistant cells and clinical relapse.

The traditional path to drug development, even targeted therapy, has been one at a time. Sometimes a new drug is added to a standard regimen and then compared to the standard alone, but regardless of how or with what it is used, it has to work on its own.

Cooperative Development

This system is no longer completely viable in cancer and needs to be modernized. A new approach would provide the flexibility to evaluate combination regimens in a single development program that can screen all tumors for their pathway dependencies, resulting in efficacy based on screening results and experience with patterns of resistance.

However, despite the potential benefits of such a scheme, uncertainty and risk abound. First, it is usually impossible to characterize the effects of the individual components. Second, combinations would probably yield considerably less information about safety and efficacy than would have been available had they been developed individually. Third, patients and physicians must not only be informed of more-than-usual risk, they must be willing to accept it. Fourth, there should be a compelling biologic rationale for their use and substantial reasons why the agents cannot be developed individually.

The Science Is Complex

James Doroshow, MD, Deputy Director for Clinical and Translational Research, NCI, discussed the scientific challenges facing development of combination targeted therapeutics:

The mechanisms of action for a growing number of targeted agents that are available for trials are not completely understood.

Lack of the right assays or imaging tools means inability to assess the target effect of many agents, and assays are not standardized.

Preclinical models to evaluate efficacy, dosing schedule effects, biomarker utility, and toxicity are not available for combination therapies.

Clinical trials methodology remains unclear with regard to numbers of patients, tumor biopsies, relevance of histologic homogeneity, and pharmacokinetic interactions.

Intellectual property and regulatory matters are daunting.

Dr. Doroshow also discussed mechanism of action (or mechanism of resistance) studies in early-phase trials. Problems include the evaluation of actual vs presumed sites of target engagement, evidence to support further development, demonstration of the relationship between dosing schedule and systemic exposure to target effects, and relevance of biomarkers.

“In addition, we need to investigate the molecular effects, toxicology, and other safety signals of combination agents in surrogate tissues,” said Dr. Doroshow. “This is a huge undertaking, and unfortunately it is not necessarily predictive of clinical benefit. That requires larger, later-stage trials.”

Michael T. Barrett, PhD, Associate Professor and Head of the Oncogenomics Laboratory, TGen, added that cancer is extremely genetically unstable, resulting in highly karyotypically and biologically individual malignancies. Thus, each patient’s cancer could require its own specific therapy. Even if this were possible and practical, the treatment could ultimately be thwarted by emergence of a resistant variant genetic subline.

Dr. Barrett also noted that each genome has unique sets of selected aberrations and mutations, of which multiple populations can be present at biopsy. These mutations can be asymmetric; they can progress and metastasize, and thus resist treatment. He warned that application of genomic tools to combination therapy has to be based on unbiased profiling of biopsies, as well as identification of therapeutic vulnerabilities in all patients.

Kurt Bachman, PhD, Head of Translational Medicine and Biology, GlaxoSmithKline, added, “The challenge is to identify the tumor types most likely to respond, to find biomarkers that predict a response, and to define the relationship of the predictors to the biology of the inhibitors.”

Disclosure: Dr. Hohneker is employed by and owns stock in Novartis. Dr. Barrett has a current research contract with AstraZeneca. Dr. Bachman is employed by GlaxoSmithKline. Dr. Perlmutter reported no potential conflicts of interest. Dr. Doroshow reported no potential conflicts of interest.

http://www.ascopost.com/articles/sep...hallenges.aspx
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Old 09-21-2011, 11:35 PM   #24
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Targeted Therapies for Cancer Confronts Hurdles

In a conference sponsored by the Institute of Medicine, scientists representing both public and private institutions examined the obstacles that confront researchers in their efforts to develop effective combinations of targeted cancer agents.

In a periodical published by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in their September 1, 2011 issue of the ASCO Post, contributor Margo J. Fromer, who participated in the conference, wrote about it.

One of the participants, Jane Perlmutter, PhD, of the Gemini Group, pointed out that advances in genomics have provided sophisticated target therapies, but noted, “cellular pathways contain redundancies that can be activated in response to inhibition of one or another pathway, thus promoting emergence of resistant cells and clinical relapse.”

James Doroshow, MD, deputy director for clinical and translational research at the NCI, said, “the mechanism of actions for a growing number of targeted agents that are available for trials, are not completely understood.”

He went on to say that the “lack of the right assays or imaging tools means inability to assess the target effect of many agents.” He added that “we need to investigate the molecular effects . . . in surrogate tissues,” and concluded “this is a huge undertaking.”

Michael T. Barrett, PhD, of TGen, pointed out that “each patient’s cancer could require it’s own specific therapy.” This was followed by Kurt Bachman of GlaxoSmithKline, who opined, “the challenge is to identify the tumor types most likely to respond, to find biomarkers that predict response, and to define the relationship of the predictors to biology of the inhibitors.”

What they were describing was precisely the work that clinical oncologists involved with cell culture assays have been doing for the past two decades. One of those clinicians, Dr. Robert Nagourney felt that there had been an epiphany.

The complexities and redundancies of human tumor biology had finally dawned on these investigators, who had previously clung unwaiveringly to their analyte-based molecular platforms.

The molecular biologists humbled by the manifest complexity of human tumor biology had finally recognized that they were outgunned and whole-cell experimental models had gained the hegemony they so rightly deserved.

Source: Dr. Robert A. Nagourney, medical director, Rational Therapeutics and instructor in Pharmacology at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine.
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Old 02-27-2012, 06:04 PM   #25
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The different genes studied in the genetic testing

The different genes that were studied in the molecular part of the above study were ERCC1, GSTP1, MGMT, XPD and BRCA1. These are putative drug resistance genes. ERCC and XPD are response elements for CDDP repair. BRCA1 is also a response element for DNA damage and part of FANC gene family (a genomic fidelity function).

GSTP1 is a detoxifying enzyme associated with thiol conjugation (alkylator resistance) while MGMT is the specific enzyme associated with the removal of temozolomide residues from DNA base pairs.

What the investigators did was to examine the "Target Now" types of targets and compare clinical responses against the results with functional analyses, establishing that when one measures the biology of the disease it provides a more robust prediction of response. The "driver" term is less operative as these genes are not causative of the disease but causative of drug resistance.
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