Bevacizumab, the drug also known as Avastin by trade name, when combined with another cancer drug, dasatinib, can stop brain cancer (glioblastoma multiforme) spread, according to researchers.
Researchers have found the reason why the drug Avastin, when taken alone, shrinks tumors briefly, but often grow again and spread throughout the brain and also found that pairing Avastin with dasatinib, can stop that lethal spread. Dasatinib is approved for use in several blood cancers.
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.
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The findings, based on an animal study, are detailed in the Feb. 14 online issue of PLOS ONE. Based on those results, Mayo Clinic has already conducted a phase I clinical trial testing a combination of bevacizumab and dasatinib in glioblastoma patients whose other therapies failed. Mayo is now carrying out a randomized phase II study of 100 patients through Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology, a clinical trials network supported by the National Cancer Institute.
"We are very encouraged. This finding could potentially benefit many cancer patients," says co-author Panos Z. Anastasiadis, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Cancer Biology at Mayo Clinic in Florida. Working with him were researchers and oncologists from Mayo Clinic campuses in Florida and Minnesota.
![Glioma Brain Tumor]( "Glioma Brain Tumor")
Democrat Senator Edward Kennedy has been diagnosed with Glioma, a kind of brain tumor. Tests carried out on the 76 -year old politician revealed a tumor on his left parietal lobe.
The research began after Dr. Anastasiadis, a basic scientist who studies cell adhesion and migration, gave a seminar to a group of oncologists who treat brain tumors. The issue of bevacizumab-induced invasion was brought up and a collaboration to study it was quickly set up and funded by the Mayo Clinic Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant for brain cancer, one of only four in the country.
The issue of bevacizumab's induced aggressiveness is not limited to brain cancer, Dr. Anastasiadis says.
"While Avastin offers clear benefit in some patients, oncologists have noted that when cancers of many types recur after use of Avastin, they become aggressive and invasive," he says.
The team discovered that as brain tumors become more aggressive after use of bevacizumab in mice, the cancers begin inducing a family of kinases known as Src, which then activate proteins found at the edge of brain tumors. These proteins essentially give the tumor cells "legs" upon which to crawl away and find a new source of nutrition, Dr. Anastasiadis says.
"Anti-angiogenesis drugs like Avastin deprive tumor cells of blood nutrients, so the tumors shrink initially, but we believe that this deprivation acts like a switch to turn on proteins that help the cancer cells migrate to other parts of the brain in search of blood," he says. "In short, if Avastin does not allow a tumor to make new blood vessels to feed it, the tumor will move to other existing blood vessels."
The researchers then tested dasatinib, a drug that inhibits Src kinases. They found that while use of bevacizumab or dasatinib alone did not provide much benefit in mouse models of human glioblastoma, use of both together shrank tumors and blocked any subsequent spread.
"If you block that migration, the cells are forced to stick together and hopefully die by lack of nutrition," Dr. Anastasiadis says.
Researchers next will work to identify which patients benefit the most from this new treatment, which do not, and why.
Source: Newswise
Glioma Brain Tumor
Democrat Senator Edward Kennedy has been diagnosed with Glioma, a kind of brain tumor. Tests carried out on the 76 -year old politician revealed a tumor on his left parietal lobe.
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The research began after Dr. Anastasiadis, a basic scientist who studies cell adhesion and migration, gave a seminar to a group of oncologists who treat brain tumors. The issue of bevacizumab-induced invasion was brought up and a collaboration to study it was quickly set up and funded by the Mayo Clinic Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant for brain cancer, one of only four in the country.
The issue of bevacizumab's induced aggressiveness is not limited to brain cancer, Dr. Anastasiadis says.
"While Avastin offers clear benefit in some patients, oncologists have noted that when cancers of many types recur after use of Avastin, they become aggressive and invasive," he says.
The team discovered that as brain tumors become more aggressive after use of bevacizumab in mice, the cancers begin inducing a family of kinases known as Src, which then activate proteins found at the edge of brain tumors. These proteins essentially give the tumor cells "legs" upon which to crawl away and find a new source of nutrition, Dr. Anastasiadis says.
"Anti-angiogenesis drugs like Avastin deprive tumor cells of blood nutrients, so the tumors shrink initially, but we believe that this deprivation acts like a switch to turn on proteins that help the cancer cells migrate to other parts of the brain in search of blood," he says. "In short, if Avastin does not allow a tumor to make new blood vessels to feed it, the tumor will move to other existing blood vessels."
The researchers then tested dasatinib, a drug that inhibits Src kinases. They found that while use of bevacizumab or dasatinib alone did not provide much benefit in mouse models of human glioblastoma, use of both together shrank tumors and blocked any subsequent spread.
"If you block that migration, the cells are forced to stick together and hopefully die by lack of nutrition," Dr. Anastasiadis says.
Researchers next will work to identify which patients benefit the most from this new treatment, which do not, and why.
Source: Newswise
Bevacizumab
This medication is used to treat certain types of advanced lung cancer. It is also used to treat certain types of brain, breast, kidney, colon, or rectal cancer along with other cancer medicines.
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DasatinibThis medication is prescribed for blood cancer(Chronic Myeloid Leukemia). It is a protein-tyrosinekinase inhibitor. It blocks the action of an abnormal protein that signals cancer cells to multiply. | Advertisement
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