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Hi Dear friends:
i'm urgently looking for clinical trials in california or other state regarding the new drug of
" parp inhibitors (olaparib) " any one have information about this pls call me @ 310-562-4891 thanks so much for all your help.
Targeted therapy Cancer Chemotherapy Carboplatin Eye cancer Breast cancer Ovarian cancer
Try this link to the NCI:
http://www.cancer.gov/CLINICALTRIALS
Check out Dana Farber in Boston. They are doing some clinicals with PARP. Don't know what the requirements are.
Peace,
tomd
Did you find anything? I am looking into 2 studies with PARP (one with chemo and one without) at UC Davis in Sacramento.
HELLO-
I LIVE IN SACRAMENTO AND I AM BRCA 2 POSITIVE. I DID GO TO UC DAVIS A FEW YEARS AGO FOR MY TREATMENTS. DO YOU KNOW THE NAMES OF THE TRIALS THERE? THANKS-
Targeted drugs are based on a variety of biological mechanisms (pathways) that essentially stop cancer from spreading. They interfere with specific molecules (receptors and enzymes inside and outside a cancer cell) involved in carcinogenesis (the process by which normal cells become cancer cells) and tumor growth.
The most common targets on the outside of a cancer cell are receptors, which are proteins that help relay chemical messages. Many targets on the inside of a cell are enzymes, which are proteins that help speed up chemical reactions in the body.
By focusing on these molecular and cellular changes, targeted cancer drugs go after the "target" in these cells, rather than just all cells. In other words, they focus on molecular and cellular changes that are specific to cancer.
Small molecule (enzyme) inhibitors (like olaparib) make biologic processes happen faster and are often key junctions in the signaling pathways. It is a key intermediary in the EGF cascade pathway.
Although targeted therapy is appealing, it is more complex than meets the eye. Cancer cells often have many mutations in many different pathways, so even if one route is shut down by a targeted treatment, the cancer cell may be able to use other routes.
In other words, cancer cells have "backup systems" that allow them to survive. The result is that the drug does not shrink the tumor as expected. One approach to this problem is to target multiple pathways in a cancer cell.
Multi-targeted drugs can be well-predicted by measuring the effect of the drugs on the "function" (is the cell being killed regardless of the mechansim) of live cells, as opposed to a "target" (does the cell express a particular target the the drug is supposed to be attacking).
While a "target" assay tells you whether or not to give "one" drug, a "functional" assay can find other compounds and combinations and can recommend them from the one assay.
Energy Girl -- They actually have several going on for Ovarian Cancer at UCF Davis, but the PARP studies are:
AZD2281 and Carboplatin in Treating Patients With BRCA1/BRCA2-Associated, Hereditary, or Triple Negative Metastatic or Unresectable Breast Cancer or Ovarian Epithelial Cancer
Conditions: brca1 Mutation Carrier; brca2 Mutation Carrier; Breast Cancer; Hereditary Breast/Ovarian Cancer (brca1, brca2); Ovarian Cancer
Interventions: Drug: carboplatin; Drug: olaparib; Genetic: polymorphism analysis; Other: enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; Other: laboratory biomarker analysis; Other: pharmacogenomic studies
AND
MK4827 in Patients With Advanced Solid Tumors and BRCA Mutant Ovarian Cancer
Conditions: Solid Tumors and Ovarian Neoplasms; Ovarian Neoplasms
Intervention: Drug: Comparator: MK4827 (PARP inhibitor)
I am on the wating list for the MK4827, but unfortunately it most likely would be April or May before I would start. So I am going to UCSF (insurance reasons--I love Dr Agerwal at UC Davis!) for a tertiary debulikng then will have chemo again.
Sir, you have been giving us good insight about Ovarian Cancer. What do you think is the best treatment for stage III-C BRCA 1 and 2 mutation second recurrence age 71 currently being treated with carbo 4.5mg. CA 125 is 1400 and it stabilize on the second cycle and dose increased to .1mg on the third cycle. If Olaparib is not the best, what do you think is the best treatment after this chemo. Is there a chance for total remission? and how to maintain it.
Thank you and look forward to hear from you.
cielo
Cells are the most basic structure of the body. Cells make up tissues, and tissues make up organs, such as the lungs, liver, kidneys. Each cell is surrounded by a membrane, a thin layer that separates the outside of the cell from the inside.
Normally, these cells grow and divide to form new cells as the body needs them. Sometimes this orderly process goes wrong. Sometimes new cells form when the body does not need them, and the old cells do not die when they should.
When this happens, these extra cells can form a mass of tissue called a tumor. Cells in a cancerous tumor are abnormal and divide without order. They can invade and damage nearby tissues and organs, and can break away from a malignant tumor and spread to other parts of the body (metastasis).
For a cell to perform necessary functions for the body and respond to its surroundings, it needs to communicate with other cells in the body. Communication occurs through chemical messages in a process called signal transduction (a cascade of cellular and biochemical events). The purpose of these signals is to tell the cell what to do, such as when to grow, divide into two new cells, and die.
Normal chemotherapy kills both cancer cells and healthy normal cells (mainly rapidly-dividing cells). Oncologists try to minimize damage to normal cells and to enhance the cell-killing effect on cancer cells. Too often, this delicate balance is not achieved.
The "targets" that the new "smart drugs" go after can be located on the "inside" or "outside" of a cancer cell. The most common targets on the outside are receptors, proteins that help relay chemical messages. And many targets on the inside are enzymes, proteins that help speed up chemical reactions in the body.
Targeted therapy drugs interfere with specific molecules (receptors and enzymes inside and outside a cancer cell). By focusing on these molecular and cellular changes, targeted cancer drugs go after the "target" in these cells, rather than just all cells. Because of this, "targeted" drugs may be more effective than current treatments, and may be less harmful to normal cells.
Since unregulated signal transduction is a primary characteristic of many types of cancers, researchers are very active in the pursuit of inhibitors that can control the process. These drugs promise to become an essential part of the physician's armament against cancer, particularly those cancers that have developed resistance to other forms of treatment.
However, efforts to administer targeted therapies in randomly selected patients often result in low response rates at significant toxicity and cost. There have been setbacks in the use of these drugs in regards to "drug selection" that reflect a lack of validated biomarkers.
While researchers continue to develop molecular probes to select candidates, the cell culture analysis platform serves as a functional profile capable of examining the nuances of cellular response to these targeted drugs. To exploit the full potential of targeted anticancer therapies, physicians will need laboratory tests that match patients to specific drugs.
Cell culture assays are able to accurately predict how an individual patient's cancer cells will respond to an array of drug combinations. It is able to quantify synergistic drug combinations and individually tailor treatment.
With all that being said, I would not venture a recommendation of treatment for anyone, except that patients would certainly have a better chance of success had their cancer been chemo-sensitive rather than chemo-resistant, where it is more apparent that chemotherapy improves the survival of patients, and where identifying the most effective chemotherapy would be more likely to improve survival.
The hope is to match tumor type to drug. We need to make the next leap, getting the right drug to the right patient.
Thank you gpawelski for breaking down all of the science talk into terms that I can understand! What a help as we all walk through this maze of information. I learned yesterday from my doctor that a trial will be starting very soon for a vaccine for those who have just finished their first round of chemo-----they have to be within three months of their last chemo. My doctor is one of three in the nation that will running this trial at the cancer center where I have been treated. Have your read any of the research that has led up to the vaccine studies? Thanks again for all you do to educate those of us that are always trying to stay on top of the latest information! KSD
Ahh! KSD. Immune Therapies!
A paradox of tumor immunology is that so-called immune surveillance against cancer is a real and important phenomenom. Cancer is much more common in immunosuppressed people. Is the cancer a result of immunosuppression or does the cancer occur as a result of the same thing which caused the immunosuppression? The immune system is obviously very important, and major efforts should be made to harness the immune system in cancer therapy. It is a natural approach to cancer therapy.
In the 1960s, tumor immunology was probably the hottest field in cancer research. Then, once again, in the early 1980s, with the work of Rosenberg at the NCI with IL-2 and "LAK" and "TIL" cells. But, despite enormous efforts, it remained true that probably for every cancer patient cured with immunotherapy, a thousand had been cured with regular old toxic chemotherapy. That's what's paradoxical.
On such tumor immunotherapy study that was prematurely abandoned during the early 90's was a concept of in situ cancer vaccination based upon studies of biologic response modifiers in an assay. Preliminary results found a striking association between the activity of biologic response modifiers which activate macrophages and the prior treatment status of patients with breast and ovarian cancers.
Effective chemotherapy produced a massive release and processing of tumor antigens, which led to a state in which the human immune system, via in situ cancer vaccination, responded to exogenous macrophage activation signals with potent and specific anti-tumor effects.
It's good to see the resurgence of aggressive cancer vaccine research. The choice of researchers to integrate promising insights and methods remains an essential component of new paradigms of cancer treatment.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/92942.php
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