A new class of drugs that can convert cancer cells into normal cells offers the prospect of new cancer treatments without the painful side effects of conventional chemotherapy, doctors say.
On Wednesday, researchers at Columbia University and the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City reported that lung cancer and leukemia had been treated effectively in several patients with a new drug that makes cancer cells grow up and behave themselves.Dr. Richard Rifkind of Sloan-Kettering said that about a dozen of some 60 patients tested with an early version of the drug showed at least temporary improvement.
The finding "makes me more confident that with a more effective drug this is a strategy well worth trying," said Rifkind, who has treated about 30 patients at Sloan-Kettering in collaboration with Dr. Paul Marks.
Another collaborator, Ronald Breslow, a chemist at Columbia, said that newer versions of the drug that are up to 1,000 times more powerful have been developed.
Those drugs may be given their first human trials by the end of the year, Breslow said at a national meeting of the American Chemical Society.
"This is first-rate," said Dr. John Laszlo, senior vice president for research at the American Cancer Society, when asked about the research.
Conventional cancer treatment uses toxic drugs to kill cancer cells. But those drugs also damage some normal cells, producing severe nausea, hair loss and other painful complications.
Laboratory tests show the new drugs may be effective against a wide range of cancers, including ovarian, breast and colon cancer, Breslow said.