�Cancer researchers at George Mason University's Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine ar studying the effects of experimental treatments on living tumor cells taken from multiple myeloma patients wHO are undergoing a routine diagnostic process.
The trial may resultant in the discovery of novel therapeutic targets for treatment of this incurable form of blood cancer expected to strike nearly 20,000 men and women this year.
CAPMM co-directors Lance Liotta and Emanuel Petricoin III are partnering with oncologists at Fairfax-Northern Virginia Hematology Oncology in a clinical programme for multiple myeloma patients to examine protein signal pathway activity in pathological cells and determine what type of drug interposition is required to forestall further growth of the disease.
"This is non a patient treatment trial," explains Liotta. "Instead, living cells from a biopsy are treated in culture immediately after being remote from the patient."
Trial participants will undergo a bone bone marrow biopsy, which is parting of the routine banner of concern practices for an existing or suspected multiple myeloma diagnosis. Once the berth procedure is performed, extra material not required for diagnosis is immediately preserved and taken to the CAPMM laboratories for analysis.
"Our information indicate that the protein signaling pathways that control cellular activity are different in each patient's tumor," Liotta says. "This novel trial testament test a large series of targeted inhibitors, alone and in unique combinations, which block key signaling pathways in the neoplasm cells. This is a key first base step toward true personalized therapy for multiple myeloma."
Currently, treatment of multiple myeloma is based on a one-size-fits-all approach that fails to consider the protein sign information, Petricoin adds. "Since this information underpins the growth and survival of the crab cells, we hypothesize that turning patient-specific signaling activation off will kill the tumor cells more effectively than the current intervention," he says. "In this initial study, we volition test hopeful new treatments that crataegus laevigata be candidates for Phase I or II clinical treatment research trials."
The research is funded by local philanthropist Chris Walker. "This is an exemplar of serendipity and opportunity, and that is what makes America a particular place -- where beneficial people and good ideas garner support from pluralistic sources," he says. "Cancer, in peculiar, needs some new ideas since the old approaches aren't working."
Multiple myeloma is a treatable progressive disease that attacks the plasma cell, a vital part of the immune system that produces antibodies to fight infection and disease. One of the leading causes of malignant neoplastic disease death among African Americans, it is the second base most rife blood genus Cancer in the United States and strikes more ofttimes in work force than women.
Patients interested in active in this multiple myeloma trial mustiness be referred by their physicians for an eligibility screening. For additional information contact Denise Campbell, Fairfax-Northern Virginia Hematology Oncology, at 703-280-5390.
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