canberra times 10th december

In brief, PI-88 could be used in 97% of cancers and expected life extended to at least 12 months.

ANU CANCER BREAKTHROUGH COULD END CHEMO
Danielle Cronin Health Reporter

Advanced testing of an Australian National University-developed anti- cancer drug, which could replace debilitating chemotherapy, had stopped tumours growing and caused them to shrink for some sufferers, according to the Canberra researcher who made the
discovery. About 350 patients have taken more than 5000 doses of the drug, PI- 88, which
effectively starves tumours, but researchers are expanding the test to involve 650 patients
with primary liver cancer and advanced melanoma, lung and prostate cancer. Professor
Chris Parish, from Australian National University's John Curtin School of Medical
Research, said it was the largest test of its kind in Australia and the drug would potentially
be available in three years.
Professor Parish said basic science and curiosity had led to the discovery. He was
investigating the ways that cells behaved and found cancer cells hijacked white cells,
using the same system to spread and invade tissue. This led to the development of PI- 88
- a new-generation anti-cancer drug that allowed sufferers to control their condition and
live a normal life just as diabetics used insulin.
''It can be applied, in theory, to all solid cancers, which amount to about 97 per cent of
cancers,'' Professor Parish said yesterday. ''It interferes with new blood vessels growing
into a solid cancer and without new blood vessels, tumours can't grow. They get starved of
nitrogen and oxygen because they have to have that blood supply.
''It has a double-hit mode of action. It stops the primary tumour growing by starving it of
that blood supply and if it's spreading, by inhibiting an enzyme that allows it to burrow
through blood-vessel walls and spread to other organs.'' Professor Parish said it was a
subtle drug with minimal side effects, especially when compared with traditional treatments
such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Progen's vice-president for research and development Dr Anand Gautam said the
biotechnology company was coordinating the cancer drug test, which was currently the
largest trial of its kind in Australia. Now the second phase was to test the anti-cancer
compound's effectiveness among about 650 people with cancer. The group of volunteers
included 90 people with prostrate cancer, 100 with melanoma and 100 with lung cancer
who had exhausted other options.
About 350 people with primary liver cancer would also take part in clinical trials throughout
Australia and in the US and Taiwan. All participants were on chemotherapy but some
recruits were randomly selected to also receive PI-88. ''We hope that we will see a clear
efficacy in the trial, ie that the people who are on chemotherapy combined with the PI-88
drug should live longer,'' Dr Gautam who was a research fellow at the John Curtin School
about a decade ago, said.
''These patients will usually live for six months but hopefully, they will live for a year at least
... and because the drug works in a very novel way, that these patients also don't suffer
from the pain. ''There are four or five patients around the world that have been on the drug
for the past 3 to four years, including an advanced melanoma patient whose life
expectancy was maybe about six or seven months.
''This person is still taking the drug, is healthy, active, swims and runs. ''These people have
outperformed our expectations.''