New drug is not Abraxane!

[Unregistered]

I did ask my oncologist if it was abraxane and he said,"no". He said abraxane can be worse for the neuopathy but the drug rep keeps saying the neuropathy goes away within a month once it is stopped making it better then Taxol which lasts for months once treatment is stopped. His question to them was, "what is the patient suppose to do for the pain while on it?" They couldn't answer that one. My oncologist says the only advantage is no pre meds with Abraxane that is a plus but then more neuropathy. He is using it on some of his patients but not me. I will find out what this new drug is that got fast tracked recently and let you all know. Thought I would test you all and see if you knew! hugs, Sandy

[Lani]

I haven't followed how the approval process was going or if it was still in phase 3, but I know Dr. Swain of the NIH was trying to move this one along quickly: Ixabepilone.
It targets microtubules like taxanes, but has a different chemical structure and supposedly causes less neuropathy

1: Semin Oncol. 2005 Dec;32(6 Suppl 7):S22-6. Related Articles, Links

Development of novel chemotherapeutic agents to evade the mechanisms of multidrug resistance (MDR).

Lee JJ, Swain SM.

Cancer Therapeutics Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20889-5015, USA.

A number of novel microtubule-targeting agents are currently under investigation. These agents can potentially evade the mechanisms underlying the development of the multidrug resistance (MDR) phenotype commonly associated with recurrent breast cancer. Epothilones are among the most advanced of the new agents in clinical development. Structurally unrelated to taxanes, epothilones may be poor substrates for MDR, and the expression of MDR proteins is not altered in epothilone-resistant in vitro models. Cross resistance between epothilones and taxanes is not observed in vitro or in vivo. Ixabepilone (BMS-247550) is a semisynthetic analog of epothilone B that has shown antitumor activity both in vitro and in vivo, including taxane-resistant human tumor xenograft models. Ixabepilone is currently being studied in phase III trials in patients with metastatic breast cancer as monotherapy and in combination with capecitabine. Activity has also been observed in other solid tumors. Patupilone (EPO906, epothilone B) and epothilone D (KOS-862) are in early phase I/II clinical studies in patients with a variety of solid tumors. The development of these novel agents may evade MDR and may improve the outcome of patients with breast cancer.

Publication Types:
Review

PMID: 16360719 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

[Christine MH-UK]

FDA recently fast-tracked this taxane for use against lung cancer. It made more of a difference in women than men, and the reason had something to do with estrogen. Don't know how it is for neuropathy. You'd have to check the phase I trials.

Another taxane in the pipeline is taxoprexin, which had much less neuropathy in phase I because it is really targeted (due to the clever use attachment of DHA, the fish oil, as bait for the cancer). This is in the pipeliene to be fast-tracked for malignant melanoma, but I don't think it is through yet.