Thursday November 26 2009 | Biotechnology feed | All feeds
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Thursday November 26 2009 | Biotechnology feed | All feeds
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Anti-cancer effects of FTY720 Between 1970 and 1994, cancer claimed the lives of about 0.5 million Americans every year. According to the most recent statistics, it is estimated that approximately 1.3 million new cases of cancer will be diagnosed and 555,500 people will die from cancer in the United States in the year 2002. Despite these statistics, 5-year survival rates following diagnosis stand at around 55%, and for some specific cancers such as breast and prostate cancer this figure is very much higher. The number of cancer related deaths is however improving very slowly (around 1% per decade) and this is largely related to the lack of effective treatments available once tumors become metastatic. Not surprisingly therefore, analysis of pharmaceutical development databases suggests about 25% of all drugs in preclinical development are targeted towards cancer, with molecules able to target apoptosis, angiogenesis and metastasis enjoying particularly high attention. Japanese researchers investigating the immunosuppressive agent, FTY720 have shown that this molecule is able to induce dramatic cancer cell apoptosis in a mouse breast cancer cell line, and furthermore tumor selectivity was observed. In vivo, tumor growth was markedly suppressed at a dosage of 5 mg/kg or more without notable side effects, and furthermore, tumor metastasis was significantly reduced even at a low dose (2 mg/kg/day), resulting in a significant prolongation of animal survival. These effects appeared to be due to cytoskeletal changes, reduced adhesion and migration to extracellular matrix components, and markedly reduced tumor integrin expression. These results indicate that FTY720 is a potent anticancer agent that induces cancer cell apoptosis and reduces metastasis. Since immunosuppression may lead to reduced immunosurveillance, further modelling of this candidate to separate its effects on immune and cancer cells may produce even more impressive antitumor effects. Link to journal abstract:
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