Diabetes Drug Boosts Chemo

Ivanhoe Newswire
Tuesday, May 8, 2007; 12:00 AM

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Cancer patients may someday get a boost from a common diabetes drug.

New research from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston finds the diabetes drug rosiglitazone (Avandia) significantly increases the strength of platinum-based chemotherapy in various cancer cell lines and in mice with tumors. The study shows the drug combination stopped or shrank tumors in mice up to three-times better than when each drug was given alone.

Researchers say if the two drugs together have the same effect in humans, it could improve control of ovarian, lung and other cancers routinely treated with platinum chemotherapy. The combination may also extend the use of platinum drugs to other cancers in which they haven't worked before.

Researchers found when non-small-cell lung cancer cell lines were treated with rosizitaglone by itself there was no effect on growth. Platinum chemotherapy alone reduced growth of the cancer cells by about 60 percent, but the two drugs together reduced cell growth by 80 percent. The drugs also reduced growth of ovarian cancer cells that are normally resistant to chemotherapy by 90 percent. Researchers also report the combination lowered the growth rate of colon cancer cells -- a type of cancer not usually treated with platinum drugs -- by 70 percent.

"There's still a huge gulf between these experiments and human cancers," senior author Bruce Spiegelman, Ph.D., Dana-Farber Cancer Institute was quoted as saying. "But it's worked in every animal model of cancer we've looked at, and I think there's a fair chance it will help people."

The first clinical trials could begin sometime this year.

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SOURCE: Cancer Cell, published online May 7, 2007