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Researchers Discover A Drug Combination That Shrinks Prostate Tumors In Vivo

Main Category: Prostate / Prostate Cancer
Also Included In: Cardiovascular / Cardiology; Erectile Dysfunction / Premature Ejaculation
Article Date: 28 Sep 2010 – 3:00 PDT

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Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine and VCU Massey Cancer Center researchers have shown that the impotence drug Viagra, in combination with doxorubicin, a powerful anti-cancer drug, enhances its anti-tumor efficacy in prostate cancer while alleviating the damage to the heart at the same time.

For more than four decades the chemotherapeutic agent doxorubicin has been used to treat a number of human cancers, including that of the prostate. Despite doxorubicin’s clinical efficacy for cancer treatment, its use is associated with irreversible heart damage, often presenting several years after treatment stops. Researchers have been working over the past 15 years to find an optimal therapeutic intervention for protecting the heart against the cytotoxicity associated with doxorubicin.

In the study published online the week of Sept. 27 in the Early Edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers using a variety of powerful in vitro and in vivo approaches, have shown that a combination of Viagra, generically known as sildenafil, and doxorubcin significantly enhances the generation of reactive oxygen species that trigger cell death, or apoptosis, in prostate cancer cells. They also observed that the combination did not harm the normal, healthy prostate epithelial cells.

“We believe sildenafil could be an excellent candidate for incorporation into cancer treatment protocols – with the potential of enhancing the anti-tumor efficacy, while protecting the heart against both short term and long term damage from doxorubicin,” said principal investigator Rakesh C. Kukreja, Ph.D., scientific director of the VCU Pauley Heart Center and the Eric Lipman professor in cardiology in the VCU School of Medicine, and Anindita Das, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Internal Medicine the VCU School of Medicine.

Kukreja is excited about the potential translational impact of this work. “My team and I are hoping to move the research Root Explorer Apk is an ultimate file manager especially for the rooted Android phone users. forward to a clinical trial and plans are under way to do so,” he said. The clinical trial would evaluate the effectiveness of the drug combination in cancer patients.

Kukreja’s laboratory is one of the first to explore the area of preconditioning. This preconditioning effect was modeled in his lab by “pretreating” mice with doses of sildenafil which also increases therapeutic levels of nitric oxide in the heart.

A preconditioned or pretreated heart has an improved ability to produce nitric oxide and directly improves a patient’s outcome following a heart attack. Generally, damage following a heart attack is related to an inability to recover from lack of oxygen.

Notes:
The work was supported in part by a MERIT Award to Kukreja from the National, Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health.

Kukreja and Das collaborated with Paul Dent, Ph.D., a research member with the VCU Massey Cancer Center. Also contributing to this work were VCU researchers David Durrant, Clint Mitchell, a postdoctoral fellow in Dent’s lab, Eric Mayton, a research assistant in Kukreja’s lab, Nicholas N. Hoke, a graduate student in Kukreja’s lab, Fadi N. Salloum, assistant professor of Internal Medicine and researcher with the VCU Pauley Heart Center, Margaret A. Park, a postdoctoral fellow with Dent’s lab, Ian Quershi, a graduate student in Kurkeja’s lab, and Ray Lee, former assistant professor of internal medicine.

Source:
Sathya Achia Abraham
Virginia Commonwealth University

Sexual Issues A Major Concern For Cancer Patients Taking New Targeted Drugs

Main Category: Cancer / Oncology
Also Included In: Sexual Health / STDs; Erectile Dysfunction / Premature Ejaculation
Article Date: 13 Oct 2010 – 0:00 PDT

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New drugs that target specific molecular mechanisms of cancer have improved the treatment of cancer patients in recent years, but those benefits may come with a cost to the patient’s sex life, researchers have found.

At the 35th Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) in Milan, Italy, French researchers reported on one of the few studies to investigate the impact of cancer therapy on the sexual functioning of patients.

Dr Yohann Loriot and Dr Thomas Bessede from Institut Gustave Roussy in Villejuif, France and colleagues found that patients taking targeted therapies had significantly decreased levels of sexual function and satisfaction.

“The new molecular targeted therapies have been available for 6 or 7 years and researchers and physicians have observed some new side-effects not often reported with chemotherapy such as cutaneous side-effects and gastro-intestinal toxicity. But very few studies have been conducted in the field of sexuality, mainly because patients are not willing to talk with their physicians on this topic,” Dr Loriot said.

The researchers surveyed 51 patients (40 men and 11 women) who had been taking molecular targeted therapies for more than three months without progressive disease about changes in their sexual life.

The drugs involved were sunitinib, sorafenib, temsirolimus, everolimus, bevacizumab, tarceva and cetuximab. Men completed the International Index of Erectile Function (IEEF) questionnaire –which includes questions on erectile function, intercourse satisfaction, orgasmic function, sexual desire and overall satisfaction.

Women in the study completed the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) questionnaire, which includes questions on desire, arousal, lubrication, orgasm, satisfaction and pain.

The median overall IIEF score for men was 40, just 53% of the maximum score. For women, the median FSFI score was 8.4, just 24% of the maximum.

“The sex lives of the patients in our study had reduced quality and intensity,” Dr Loriot said. “We also found that more than half of the patients expressed a wish for a satisfying sexuality, but many of them found it difficult to initiate a discussion on the topic with their doctors.”

The impact of treatment on the sexuality of cancer patients is poorly understood, and is generally not considered in clinical trials of treatments, Dr Loriot said.

“Oncologists can address this issue first by assessing this concern more often in clinical trials, and by talking with their patients about it,” he said.

He suggested that oncologists could offer patients an assessment for sexual disorders during their treatment course, establish an outpatient clinic to deal with sexual disorders, or, if needed, refer patients to a specialist.

Sexuality is a major concern for cancer patients, as it is for everyone, noted Professor Raphael Catane, Chair of the department of oncology at Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer, Israel. “The disease itself, and frequently its therapy, may have a major detrimental effect on the patient’s sex life. It is hoped that the new biological/targeted treatments would be less injurious to the sexual life of cancer patients. ”

“The study by this French group has taken an important step toward understanding the effect of biological/targeted treatments on sexuality,” Prof Catane said. “They meticulously reviewed the sexual function of their patients receiving biological agents. The results show a diminished sexual drive and pleasure, but the degree and the duration, and how it compares to the standard/conventional therapy, is not yet known. This study can be a basis for further investigation of this very important aspect of cancer therapy.”

Source:
Vanessa Pavinato

European Society for Medical Oncology

Apricus Bio Announces First Patent Grant For Femprox(R) In Japan

Main Category: Erectile Dysfunction / Premature Ejaculation
Article Date: 20 Oct 2010 – 2:00 PDT

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Apricus Biosciences, Inc., (“Apricus Bio”) (Nasdaq: APRI) backed by a revenue generating CRO business and seeking to leverage its multi-route NexACT® drug delivery technology and internal pipeline through out-licensing partnerships, today announced that the Japanese Patent Office has issued a Decision to Grant a Patent for the Company’s application on Femprox entitled, “Compositions and Methods for Amelioration of Human Female Sexual Dysfunction.” This patent, when issued, will provide Japanese patent protection to December 2019, and is one in a series of patents and pending applications that Apricus Bio owns on Femprox and the underlying NexACT technology.

“Compositions and Methods for Amelioration of Human Female Sexual Dysfunction.”

Commenting on today’s news, Dr. Bassam Damaj, President and Chief Executive Officer of Apricus Bio, stated, “We are very pleased with our first patent allowance for Femprox in Japan. We continue to aggressively pursue intellectual property (“IP”) coverage for our technology and product candidates under development and this allowance adds to the strength of our overall IP position. In addition to the newly allowed claims in Japan, we have corresponding coverage and protection for Femprox in many other major international markets. The advancement of our patent portfolio comes at an optimal time, as we are in active discussions with potential partners to out-license Femprox.”

Femprox is an alprostadil-based cream intended for the treatment of female sexual arousal disorder. Apricus has completed nine clinical studies to date, including one, 98-patient Phase 2 study in the U.S. and a 400-patient proof-of-concept Phase 2/3 study in China, where the cost for conducting clinical studies was significantly lower than in the U.S.

Source:

Apricus Biosciences