PharmaSentry :: New route to killing cancer tried [The News and Observer, Raleigh, N.C.]

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New route to killing cancer tried [The News and Observer, Raleigh, N.C.]
From News & Observer (Raleigh, NC) 24-Jun-2010
June 24--A targeted therapy that has generated excitement for its early success in breast cancer is now being tested in the Triangle on other cancers, including often-deadly ovarian tumors. Doctors and patients have eagerly anticipated the drugs, which provide an entirely new route to killing tumors that is less toxic than traditional chemotherapies.

Key Concepts
• cancers
• PARP inhibitors
• cells
• patients
• drugs
• traditional chemotherapies
• doctors
• excitement
• mutations
• chemotherapy
• oncologists
• treatments
• enthusiasm
• deadly foe

Summary

•	June 24--A targeted therapy that has generated excitement for its early success in breast cancer is now being tested in the Triangle on other cancers, including often-deadly ovarian tumors.
•	Doctors and patients have eagerly anticipated the drugs, which provide an entirely new route to killing tumors that is less toxic than traditional chemotherapies.
•	Called PARP inhibitors, after the enzyme they target, the drugs disable a key mechanism cancer cells employ to repair themselves.
•	Used in combination with current drugs against breast cancer, PARP inhibitors were shown to add cancer-free months to patients' lives while causing few serious side effects.
•	Although many cancer treatments have shown early promise only to fade under wider scrutiny, the prospect of a whole new approach has generated buzz even in staid journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine.
•	Last year the journal editorialized on the strength of the small breast cancer trial.
•	Since then, enthusiasm has only grown, with patients eagerly volunteering for limited spots in clinical trials to gain access to the treatment.
•	"There are a lot of patients very interested in this," said Dr. Linda Van Le, an oncologist at UNC-Chapel Hill who is helping enroll patients in a clinical trial of a PARP drug for ovarian cancer.