|
From the news files of |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
Agence France-Presse |
|
Lung Cancer Marker Found
Japanese researchers develop universal test
MARKED SMOKERS
JERUSALEM
Research carried out at the Weizmann Institute has uncovered a new genetic "marker" or risk factor among certain smokers who can be quickly identified by means of a simple blood test. Smokers bearing this genetic marker are five to 10 times more likely to develop lung cancer than other smokers, the Institute said.
Lung cancer, overwhelmingly caused by smoking, claims 1.3 million lives a year around the world, a higher toll than any other form of cancer. But although smoking is the major cause of lung cancer, only 10 percent of heavy smokers develop the disease.
Scientists at the Weizmann Institute discovered that high susceptibility to lung cancer is found among individuals whose bodies are not sufficiently able to repair DNA damage. Renewal and repair of damaged DNA are carried out by the body's enzymes. One of these, an enzyme known as OGGI, is specifically programmed to heal the harm caused by tobacco smoke.
Damage to the body's DNA system occurs around 20,000 times per day, through factors such as sunlight or smoking. If left unrepaired, it can lead to cancer. By means of a blood test, researchers were able to identify people with low levels of OGGI activity, which results in a high susceptibility to lung cancer.
"Smokers who have a low level of OGGI activity were found to have the greatest risk of lung cancer, as much as 120 times higher than nonsmokers with regular levels of OGGI," the Institute said.
The research, published in the British Journal of the National Cancer Institute, implies that most lung cancer cases result from a combination of smoking and reduced OGGI activity.
VACCINE AGAINST CANCER OF THE PANCREAS
COPENHAGEN
Researchers in the United States have developed a vaccine they hope will stop or slow the spread of one of the deadliest cancers. Robert Maki, a physician and a research director at New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, said preliminary trials on 10 patients with cancer of the pancreas had produced encouraging results.
"Tests on the patients showed that at least some people we examined made a response against the vaccine and therefore, hopefully, against the cancer," Maki bared during a cancer conference in Copenhagen organized by the Federation of European Cancer Societies in September.
In the phase-one trial, four of the 10 patients survived more than two years after being given a vaccine made from a heat-treated protein extracted from their own surgically removed tumors. One of those patients was still alive five years later, receiving the treatment, and the average survival time for all 10 stood at about 30 months-double the average life expectancy for pancreatic cancer patients.
"Over 95 percent of the people with pancreactic cancer die, typically within two years of diagnosis, and mortality is still about 90 percent even for those who have complete removal of their pancreatic cancer," Maki said. "So the finding of even a few patients surviving two years or more is promising, regarding the usefulness of this vaccine after the removal of the cancer."
However, he warned it was too early to be sure of the benefits of the prototype vaccine. "We will only get a better picture of the efficacy of this vaccine when we have the clinical results from a large study," he said.
SINGLE TEST FOR 18 CANCERS
TOKYO
Japan's largest clinical testing firm SRL Inc. said it aimed to commercialize tests by 2007 that would find nearly all types of existing cancers with a single blood test. The company plans to make the test affordable at about US$23 for a single test, a company official said. The price was the going rate for such tests, but others require multiple testing for different types of cancer.
SRL has obtained a license from Panacea Pharmaceuticals Inc. to develop and market cancer diagnosis tests in Japan using the tumor-detecting enzyme the US firm has developed. The enzyme, human aspartyl (asparaginyl) Beta-hydroxylase or HAAH, exists in normal cells but its over-expression-when it is produced in excess-signals tumor tissues. HAAH overexpression has been detected in primary tumor tissue of all 18 tumor types tested to date, including cancers of the pancreas, breast, ovary, liver, colon, prostate, lung, brain and bile duct, according to Panacea Pharmaceuticals.
"The HAAH-based cancer serum test is expected to become a single universal diagnostic test to detect early stage tumor presence regardless of tumor bearing organs," SRL chief technology officer Kazumasa Hikiji said.
|
