Arthritis drug could help beat melanoma skin cancer

March 23, 2011

A breakthrough discovery by the University of East Anglia (UEA) and Children's Hospital Boston promises an effective new treatment for one of the deadliest forms of cancer.

Reporting in the March 24 edition (front cover story) of the journal Nature, the researchers found that leflunomide - a drug commonly used to treat – also inhibits the growth of malignant melanoma.

Melanoma is a cancer of the pigment cells in our skin. It is the most aggressive form of skin cancer and, unlike most other cancers, incidence of the disease is increasing. More than 10,000 patients in the UK are diagnosed with melanoma each year. If caught early, surgery can be used to safely remove the tumour but the chances of survival for patients whose tumour is already spreading are very low. Around 2000 people a year in the UK die from malignant melanoma because the cancer has returned after being removed surgically.

UEA scientists Dr Grant Wheeler and Dr Matt Tomlinson conducted a rigorous screen of thousands of compounds, looking for those that affect the development of pigment cells in tadpoles. They identified a number of compounds that affected pigment cell development and have now shown with their US collaborators at Children's Hospital Boston that leflunomide significantly restricts tumour growth in mouse models.

And when leflunomide is used in combination with PLX4720, a promising new melanoma therapy currently undergoing clinical trials, the effect was even more powerful – leading to almost complete block of tumour growth.

The next stage is for clinical trials to be conducted into the use of leflunomide to fight melanoma. Because leflunomide is already licensed to treat , this process should be faster than usual and a new treatment for melanoma could be available within around five years.

"This is a really exciting discovery – making use of an existing drug specifically to target melanoma," said Dr Grant Wheeler, of UEA's School of Biological Sciences.

"Deaths from melanoma are increasing and there is a desparate need for new, more effective treatments. We are very optimistic that this research will lead to novel treatments for tumours which, working alongside other therapies, will help to stop them progressing."

The novel work, which was partly funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), highlights the strength of carrying out large screens of compounds in developmental model systems such as the Xenopus tadpole used at UEA and the zebrafish used at Childrens Hospital Boston. The hope is that this approach will lead to the discovery of further compounds to treat different diseases in the future.

Lead author Dr Richard White of Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School, said: "Cancer is a disease not only of genetic mutations, but also one determined by the identity of the cell in which the tumor arises. By studying development in zebrafish and frogs, we gain a unique insight into the very earliest changes that occur in those cells."

More information: 'Inhibitors of DHODH suppress neural crest development and melanoma growth via modulation of transcriptional elongation' by R White et al. is published in the March 24 edition of Nature.

Provided by University of East Anglia

4.8 /5 (4 votes)  

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dirk_bruere
Mar 23, 2011

Rank: 5 / 5 (1)
"Because leflunomide is already licensed to treat arthritis, this process should be faster than usual and a new treatment for melanoma could be available within around five years."

So if you are dying from melanoma you will have to hang on for 5 years before trying it. Unless you have arthritis. Insane.
irjsiq
Mar 23, 2011

Rank: not rated yet
"Because leflunomide is already licensed to treat arthritis, this process should be faster than usual and a new treatment for melanoma could be available within around five years."

So if you are dying from melanoma you will have to hang on for 5 years before trying it. Unless you have arthritis. Insane.


Revise Science protocols:
As Death, despite 'side-effects' is final!
Leflunomide, as approved for RA, should IMMEDIATELY be administered to Melanoma patients, and administer
Placebos to a non-melanoma group!
Reactions within BOTH groups could be studied at leisure!
The current 'Protocols' should have been revised 40-50 years in arrears . . . a Relative, told her 'Brain Cancer'(Glioblastoma) was Not the kind 'You get over!

None of the Oncologists mentioned ANY of the 'rapidly advancing studies, findings, and results available at the time. And I am not a Physician!
Means of delivering drugs directly to Tumor Cells had just been accomplished; (OUR OF SPACE!
MORE NEXT POST!
irjsiq
Mar 23, 2011

Rank: not rated yet
(OUR OF SPACE! LAST POST;
THIS IS SUBSEQUENT POST!
Means of delivering drugs directly to Tumor Cells had just been accomplished; a feat theretofore, thought to be impossible in Glioblastoma cases!

The Relative survived for about 5 months from diagnosis, which had been precipitated by 'persistent and increasingly Headaches*'!
*Pain tolerance is sometimes detrimental!
"Get the Medicine Out-Of-The-Lab, and into the Patient . . . Side effects May be Overcome! Death Cannot!
No Placebos for 'Confirmed Bearers of Terminal Disease!

Roy J Stewart,
Phoenix AZ,USA
Bob_Kob
Mar 27, 2011

Rank: not rated yet
This sounds incredible, too good to be true?
VOR
Mar 30, 2011

Rank: not rated yet
I think that a few doctors may start using it immediately.
Its not uncommon, its called 'off-label' use.
Rank 4.8 /5 (4 votes)
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