Breakthrough in the Early Detection of Colorectal Cancer Scientists Present a new Colorectal Cancer Test, "Tumour M2-PK", in the British Journal of Cancer

GIESSEN , Germany , July 30    

Scientists from the Giessen Medical University have described a progressive new test that detects cancer cells in the stool through the enzyme Tumour M2-PK in the renowned specialist publication, the British Journal of Cancer. The journal belongs to the famous Nature Publishing Group and in the field of oncology is regarded as one of the leading journals worldwide for cancer diagnosis and therapy. The results of investigating stool samples for changes in Tumour M2-PK from the working group of Professor Hans-Ulrich Kloer and Dr. Philip Hardt, together with their colleagues, present a new, precise and non-invasive method for colorectal cancer screening, according to the paper's authors.

Professor Kloer, Dr. Hardt and their co-authors from the University Clinic of Giessen investigated the marker Tumour M2-PK in their study of a patient group with colorectal cancer and a healthy control group of 204 subjects altogether, who all underwent colonoscopy. The sensitivity of the new test - in other words its accuracy to detect a tumour - lay between 60%- 90%, according to the tumour stage. Current tests such as blood-in-the-stool tests have a sensitivity of around 25%. The new test does not measure blood in the stool, but instead by measuring Tumour M2-PK it detects a tumour specific enzyme. The scientific results for the new test represent a breakthrough in the early detection of colorectal cancer.

Professor Hans-Ulrich Kloer, chief investigator of the study, explained that "Unlike the blood-in-the-stool tests, this test also discovers tumours that don't bleed. The stool marker Tumour M2-PK has very good prerequisites for population screening, with its simple analysis as well as its practicability and test characteristics". Together with the generally higher willingness by the public to participate in non-invasive investigations, this stool test, used in combination with colonoscopy to clarify the positive findings, represents a promising tool to improve the early detection of colorectal cancers."

The test is already available under the product name "ScheBo(R)-Tumour M2-PK(TM) Stool Test" (ScheBo(R)-Biotech AG, Giessen , Germany ).

BREAST CANCER SCREENING

TARGETED THERAPIES THE AIM FOR BREAST CANCER TREATMENT

London July 29 2004- Due to more and better screening practices leading to earlier diagnosis, survival rates for breast cancer have risen to as high as 87%* in some developed countries. But in the UK in 2004, 14,000 - mainly women- will still die from breast cancer, and globally this number climbs to 380,000. However a new report by independent market analyst Datamonitor** (DTM.L) indicates that in the future, new targeted therapies could lead to successful treatment for each individual patient.  

Chemotherapy drugs (cytotoxics) are currently the gold standard in breast cancer treatment, and are expected to remain so through until 2008.

Antihormonal treatment also remains an option for patients that are suitable, but the future of effective treatment for breast cancer resides with more targeted therapies, Datamonitor healthcare analyst and report author Fleur Pijpers says. “This move is largely propelled by the harsh side effects experienced by cancer patients using these current treatments, which include vomiting, nausea, alopecia and fatigue.” 

Genentech’s Herceptin has paved the way for targeted therapies. There are also other similar drugs currently in various stages of clinical trials as more biotechnology companies are specialising in the development of drugs with highly specific target areas, Pijpers says. “In fact 68% of breast cancer drugs in the clinical development pipeline are of the innovative, targeted class of drugs.”

Another targeted therapy drug, GlaxoSmithKline’s Lapatinib is currently in phase III clinical trials for metastatic breast cancer. Lapatnib is a dual tyrosine kinase inhibitor, Pijpers says. “The novelty of this drug is that it inhibits two kinases, potentially showing higher efficacy than drugs that target one. It may also effectively combat metastatic disease. This is where the cancer spreads away from the primary tumor site, normally to the lymph nodes and then to the organs, to form secondary tumors,” she says.

Cytotoxics and antihormonals serve only to slow the progress of metastatic disease, Pijpers says. “Curative treatments with lower levels of toxicity for patients with metastatic disease are urgently needed and the advent of drugs with highly specific targets could potentially change this situation, and be very profitable for the pharmaceutical companies concerned.”

Lapatinib is the only dual kinase inhibitor in Phase III trials. Approval of the drug should result in high levels of uptake among physicians, whose awareness of signal transduction inhibitors is quite high following Herceptin’s success and the press surrounding Iressa, another tyrosine kinase inhibitor that inhibits cancer cell division and growth, Pijpers says.

While the emphasis on treatment for breast cancer is beginning to move away from the traditional cytotoxics and antihormonals, both classes of drugs cannot be ignored because of their proven efficacy, Pijpers says. “The relatively low proportion of these drugs in the development pipeline, at 22% and 10% respectively, illustrates the move towards more targeted therapies. However, they are far from obsolete and will remain as the standard breast cancer treatment in the near future,” she says.

Decreasing mortality, constant commonality

While the mortality rate for breast cancer is decreasing, it remains the most common form of cancer in women (less than 1% of cases are in men), with an estimated 35,000 new cases expected to be diagnosed in the UK this year. And while advances in tumor understanding, molecular biology and patient need has caused the breast cancer treatment paradigm to shift away from traditional therapies towards the inclusion of targeted therapies, for the time being cytotoxics and antihormonals will continue to dominate the breast cancer treatment market, Pijpers says.

  (2/8/04)