Hello all,
Hoping I can find some info from this group. My 35 yr old female cousin has
been being treated for colon cancer (part of intestines already removed 4 yrs
ago) and secondary liver cancer. She had a hepatic artery pump inserted by Dr.
Tim Allen-Mersh at the Chelsea & Westminster Hospital, London, England, in
early 1994 and has done extremely well. However, the cancer has now spread to
her lungs. Surgery was not advised.
Dr. Mersh told her about some new drugs being tested by a French company, and
she will try to get on that study. She asked me to post this message to see if
anyone out there knows anything else about this:
Company: Rhone-Poulenc-Rorer
Drug chemotherapy: Rirnotecan HCl Trihydrate; Code Nme: CPTII
Now in stage 3 trial, was tried on the continent for bowel-liver cancer
Company: British Biotech Inc., Annapolis, Maryland, USA
Oral tablets: Merimastat
And a 3rd drug: Mitomycin C
If anyone knows about these or has further info on the study, treatments, I
would appreciate the info so I may pass it on to my cousin.
Thank you,
Sandra
fis…@azstarnet.com
fis…@azstarnet.com (Sandra J. Fisher) wrote:
>Company: Rhone-Poulenc-Rorer
>Drug chemotherapy: Rirnotecan HCl Trihydrate; Code Nme: CPTII
>Now in stage 3 trial, was tried on the continent for bowel-liver cancer
CPT11 and the drug called topotecan are all part of the family
of drugs call camptothecins. They work by blocking the step of DNA
unwinding…a process mediated by a normal group of enzymes called
topoisomerases. DNA is a stored in the chromosome in a highly
supercoiled fashion…and it needs to be unwound into a linear
arrangement (to the classic helix portrayed in textbooks) before the
DNA can be translated or duplicated. This process of unwinding or
rewinding (back into the supercoiled storage state) is mediated by
topoisomerases. The camptothecins target the DNA topoismerase I
enzyme…thus screwing up cell division (and the transcription of the
DNA into RNA which is then used to make proteins).
The camptothecins are being explored for a variety of cancer (e.g.
colon). There primary side effect is a major suppression of the immune
system. Their effectiveness is currently in review.
>Company: British Biotech Inc., Annapolis, Maryland, USA
>Oral tablets: Merimastat
>And a 3rd drug: Mitomycin C
Mitomycin is an alkylating agent that shows activity in a hypoxic
environment (lack of oxygen), such as that found in human solid
tumors. Its primary clinical use has been in gastrointestinal
carcinomas and recently, in non-small cell lung carcinoma. Mitomycin
must be activated (hopefully in the tumor environment) corsslinks
DNA….specifically the sixth nitrogen of adnine and the sixth oxygen,
seventh nitrogen and second nitrogen atoms of guanine of DNA. The
crossliks result in inhibition of DNA synthesis and cell death.
Loren Buhle