Karmanos Cancer Institute Researchers Present Breast Cancer Advancements at ...( Abstract # 2905 DENVER April 2...),Health

Abstract # 2905

DENVER, April 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Scientists from the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit today presented data at the American Association for Cancer Research's 100th Annual Meeting 2009 that represents significant research advancements in the treatment of the most aggressive forms of invasive breast cancer.

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Karmanos researchers discovered that when an FDA-approved cancer treatment typically used to treat cutaneous T-cell lymphoma was administered before a novel experimental antitumor agent -- which works best in breast cancers expressing the estrogen receptor (ER) -- estrogen receptors were reinstated in receptor-negative breast cancer cells so that treatment was also effective in fighting the difficult to treat ER-negative disease.

Research was supervised by Angelika Burger, Ph.D., director of the Translational Research Laboratory at the Karmanos Cancer Institute and professor of Pharmacology at Wayne State University in Detroit. Karri Stark, a doctoral candidate with Wayne State University's School of Medicine, presented the findings.

Researchers have paired vorinostat, known by its pharmaceutical name Zolinza(R), with Aminoflavone Prodrug (also known as AFP464) and found that AFP464 and vorinostat work together to inhibit the growth of triple-negative breast cancer cells. "Triple-negative" refers to breast cancer cells that have no estrogen, progesterone or HER2 receptors needed for currently-available, targeted anticancer therapies to work effectively.

AFP464 is now in Phase I clinical trials at the Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, and other cancer research centers in Paris and Brussels in Europe.