Avastin Plus Commonly Used Chemotherapies Improved Progression-Free Survival in Advan

[sassy]

http://www.businesswire.com/portal/s...tte.cachetoken

[gdpawel]

Cell culture detection of microvascular cell death in clinical specimens of human neoplasms and peripheral blood can identify the activity of both single drugs and combinations of drugs at the level of individual patients with individual cancers. It works by measuring drug effects (real-time) upon endothelial cells which make up blood vessels.

Drugs like Avastin have striking anti-microvascular effects but minimal anti-tumor effects.

Conclusions of a study published in the Journal of Internal Medicine had shown that Avastin + Tykerb may be the first clinically-exploitable antivascular drug combination. High dose, intermittent 'bolus' schedules of Tykerb to coincide with Avastin administration may be clinically advantageous, even in HER2-negative tumors.

The system utilized for the study was a functional profiling assay, which may be used to individualize antivascular therapy. It can be adapted for simple, inexpensive and sensitive/specific detection of tissue and circulating microvascular cells in a variety of neoplastic and non-neoplastic conditions and individualized cancer treatment.

The cell-based assay can accurately sort drugs into categories of above average probability of providing clinical benefit on one hand and below average probability of providing clinical benefit on the other hand, based both on tumor response and patient survival.

A private lab in the U.S. has worked with the use of DMSO and alcohol as an anti-angiogenic enhancer and potentiator and has actually measured it with "live" tumor specimens in cell culture assays.

Either oral DMSO or high dose oral alcohol (as in one and a half bottles or red wine per day for 4 days) can have a beneficial affect on cancer cells when mixed with anti-angiogenesis drugs like Avastin.

Avastin directly binds to VEGF to directly inhibit angiogenesis. Within 24 hours of VEGF inhibition, endothelial cells have been shown to shrivel, retract, fragment and die by apoptosis. Tumors which secrete relatively low levels of VEGF might be more susceptible to an agent like Avastin which works by blocking VEGF and inhibits the formation of new blood vessels.

Avastin, with alcohol (as an anti-angiogenic enhancer and potentiator), the abrogating effect of the alcohol upon VEGF reduces the secretion of VEGF by the tumor cells. It both reduces VEGF and makes Avastin work better, possibly overcoming tumor resistance to Avastin.

It is thought that the alcohol has has a membrane effect, basically putting the cells to sleep so that it doesn't think it requires a blood supply. In the presence of Avastin, it has a lethal 1-2 combination which knocks out the new vessels which are dependent on VEGF for survival.

Literature Citation: Weisenthal, LM, Patel, N, and Rueff-Weisenthal, C. Cell culture detection of microvascular cell death in clinical specimens of human neoplasms and peripheral blood. J Intern Med 264:275-287, September 2008

How to make progress in "combined" targeted therapy? Presentation: Antivascular activity of Tykerb and Avastin in primary microcluster cultures of breast cancer.

http://media.asco.org/player/default...type=&playtype=,

[Rich66]

"Either oral DMSO or high dose oral alcohol (as in one and a half bottles or red wine per day for 4 days) can have a beneficial affect on cancer cells when mixed with anti-angiogenesis drugs like Avastin."

OK! Now we are redefining "quality of life"
When the marketers get a hold of this, NAPA valley is gonna have cancer tx retreats.
I wonder if vino would help other drugs that, when delivered appropriately, have anti-angiogenic properties.

[gdpawel]

Actually, polyphenols found in red wine - such as resveratrol - are thought to have anti-oxidant or anti-cancer properties. Polyphenols are antioxidant compounds found in the skin and seeds of grapes. When wine is made from these grapes, the alcohol produced by the fermentation process dissolves the polyphenols contained in the skin and seeds. Red wine contains more polyphenols than white wine because the making of white wine requires the removal of the skins after the grapes are crushed.

What makes this interesting in cancer is the anti-angiogenic enhancer and potentiator effect of the alcohol in red wine. What it seems to tell us is that alcohol reduces the angiogenic secretions by the tumor cells. If it does that, it could both reduce these secretions and make an anti-angiogenesis drug less resistant to the tumor cells, making it more effective. In the presence of an anti-angiogenesis drug, you can have a lethel 1-2 combination which knocks out the new blood vessels which are dependent for survival of the cancer. Polyphenols extracted from red wine could be converted into a pill that is highly likely to be safe, relatively easy and inexpensive to create, and deliver (instead of one and a half bottles of red wine per day).

Resveratrol is a type of polyphenol called a phytoalexin, a class of compounds produced as part of a plant's defense system against disease. It is produced in the plant in response to an invading fungus, stress, injury, infection or ultraviolet irradiation. Red wine contains high levels of resveratrol, as do grapes, raspberries, peanuts and other plants.

Resveratrol has been shown to reduce tumor incidence in animals by affecting one or more stages of cancer development. It has been shown to inhibit growth of many types of cancer cells in cell culture. Evidence also exists that it can reduce inflammation. It also reduces activation of NF kappa B, a protein produced by the body's immune system when it is under attack. This protein affects cancer cell growth and metastasis. Resveratrol is also an antioxidant.

Many of the new gene-targeted drugs do not target enough genes. Cancer researchers now recognize hundreds if not thousands of genes must be down-regulated to conquer cancer. In one study, for example, at least 74 genes must be controlled in renal cancer alone (Cancer Biol Ther. 2004 Sep;3(9):889-90. Epub 2004 Sep 24). So-called promiscuous gene inhibitors must be found. A targeted drug like Sutent only down-regulates a small number of genes.

Resveratrol favorably switches many genes, and this has been shown in a renal cancer cell line (PMID: 15467424)(BMC Urol. 2004 Jun 22;4:9). It appears that resveratrol can target "all" genes involved in cancer. It is possible that it also chemosensitizes tumor cells, all the genes within the cell (a potentiator of chemotherapy drugs).

However, they did develope a new wine for seniors.

California vintners in the Napa Valley area, which primarily produces Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir and Pinot Grigio wines, have developed a new hybrid grape that acts as an anti-diuretic.

It is expected to reduce the number of trips older people have to make to the bathroom during the night.

The new wine will be marketed as...

PINO MORE.

I heard this through the grapevine

[Rich66]

Lots of women seem to be partial to Merle O.
I wish those promiscuous Gene inhibitors would show themselves. From what I've heard, Gene has few inhibitions to speak of.