U.S. Duplicates Protein Cancer Treatment
Government scientists have finally managed to duplicate a Harvard doctor’s success with an experimental cancer treatment that wipes out tumors in mice, and they plan to begin human testing by the fall.
The closely watched developments involve a natural protein called endostatin. It and a sister protein called angiostatin both work--at least in mice--by blocking tumors’ ability to sprout new blood vessels.
This makes cancer fall dormant or disappear altogether in lab animals. But no one knows if the same thing will happen in people.
The two proteins have been the subject of a roller coaster of speculation ever since an enthusiastic front-page story in the New York Times in May on Dr. Judah Folkman and his experiments. But doubts grew last fall when it was reported that scientists from the National Cancer Institute in Frederick, Md., had not been able to reproduce Folkman’s results.
This week, an institute team said it had at last duplicated Folkman’s work. The breakthrough using endostatin came only when institute scientists conducted the experiments at Folkman’s laboratory at Children’s Hospital in Boston.
On Thursday, another team of institute researchers said it has begun designing endostatin studies in humans. The institute wants to test the drug for safety in perhaps 10 to 30 patients with tumors of the breast, kidney, skin or other parts of the body.
“We are excited about this,” said Dr. James Pluda, an institute senior drug investigator. “If all goes well, we hope to begin by the third quarter of this year, and earlier if possible.”
Pluda said it will take about six months to design the study before it can be submitted to the Food and Drug Administration for approval.
Endostatin and angiostatin are being developed by EntreMed Inc., a small biotech company in Rockville, Md., whose stock price has risen and plunged with each bit of news about the drugs.
EntreMed is developing endostatin alone. It had a joint venture with Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. to make angiostatin, but Bristol-Myers announced this week that it is pulling out because of difficulty producing reliable quantities of the protein.
EntreMed’s shares lost half their value Wednesday but bounced all the way back Thursday when the Boston Globe reported the institute scientists’ success in duplicating Folkman’s work. EntreMed stock rose $12.81 1/4 to $25.68 3/4 on the Nasdaq stock market.
