NSW: New drug holds promise for child cancer killer

AAP General News (Australia)
08-11-2004
NSW: New drug holds promise for child cancer killer

EDS: Embargoed until 0001 AEST on Wednesday, August 11



By Evyn Testoni

SYDNEY, Aug 11 AAP - Australian cancer researchers have identified a new compound which
could substantially increase the survival rates of children with a debilitating form of
cancer.

Researchers at the Children's Cancer Institute Australia (CCIA) in Sydney are tackling
neuroblastoma, one of the most common cancers among young children.

While childhood cancer survival rates have risen to about 75 per cent in recent years,
children with neuroblastoma, which usually strikes the adrenal glands, have less than
a 50-50 chance of beating the disease.

The researchers found neuroblastoma patients responded poorly to chemotherapy due to
high levels of a gene, called MRP1, in their tumour cells.

MRP1 acts like a vacuum cleaner inside cancer cells, preventing chemotherapy getting
in and destroying them.

Institute scientists, in collaboration with American colleagues, have identified a
new compound which could pave the way for new treatments to counteract the gene's resistance.

Institute deputy director Associate Professor Murray Norris said the findings had paved
the way for animal trials and, if successful, clinical trials which could result in a
new treatment for the disease.

He said the institute had been working on the neuroblastoma link to MRP1 for almost 10 years.

Scientists in the US subjected cancer cells to a range of drugs aimed at blocking MRP1,
after screening more than 200 samples of tumour cells taken from children with aggressive
forms of the disease.

"One in particular, which we haven't given a proper name to, but we call it 4H10, is
showing particular promise in the laboratory," Prof Norris said.

"We're quite excited about that, but it's not just a question of identifying something
and then putting it straight in patients.

"You really have to do the animal studies first and show it's effective in animals
that have these kinds of tumours and then move on to clinical trials once they're successful.

"We're still quite a few years off (before developing a new treatment)."

Prof Norris said it was important to tackle childhood cancer survival rates, especially
neuroblastoma.

"In Australian it's about one in 100,000 (the incidence of neuroblastoma), so by comparison
to adult cancer it's not a big disease," he said.

"But ... childhood cancer's really only second to breast cancer in terms of number
of life years lost."

AAP evt/kbw/sco/de

KEYWORD: NEUROBLASTOMA (EMBARGOED)

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