Tarceva And Glivec Could Together Beat Back Aggressive Childhood Brain Tumour

Two well-known cancer drugs, Tarceva and Glivec, could together beat back aggressive childhood brain tumour, it has been found.

Researchers led by the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), UK, examined 90 tumours from children and found two new genetic abnormalities in nine of them.

About Brain Tumor
Brain tumors are the abnormal growth of brain cells that may be benign or metastatic. Brain tumors account for about 2.4% of all the tumor diagnosesandare most challenging due to their critically delicate location.

The research, published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, brought together scientists from the UK, France, Portugal, Brazil and America.

The abnormal tumours - known as glioblastomas, aggressive and often fatal cancers of the brain's glial cells - contained too many copies of the EGFR gene and mutations of the gene the scientists say have never before been found in children.

Researchers tried to block the EGFR gene with a drug, erlotinib (Tarceva), used in clinical trials to treat adult glioblastomas, but identified a molecule specific to the children's cells - platelet-derived growth factor receptor (PGFR) - that was making it ineffective.

But when they combined erlotinib with a drug, imatinib (Glivec), they hoped would block the PGFR molecules, they killed a significant number of the cancer cells.

Dr Chris Jones, who led the research, said it proved "that cancers may look the same, but it is only when you get down to the genetic level that you can truly understand them and devise treatments".

World Cancer Day - "Today's Children, Tomorrow's World"
To catch them young and watch them grow to be healthy adults, is the pervading sentiment of World Cancer Day reflected in its theme for 2009 - Today's children, tomorrow's world .

Professor Geoff Pilkington, of the Brainstrust charity, said the research, though fascinating, was at too early a stage to turn into a treatment for patients.

"This sort of twin therapy is a good thing to consider for the future," he said.

Bur he added: "The cells of the brain seem to be unusually resistant to anything thrown at them."

Source-Medindia
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