I read an article within the last few months about a new targeted
cancer treatment that basically bound to the cancer cells sites where
they accepted human growth hormone into them -- to stop this
particular type of cancer from spreading.  The article mentioned that
the research was at some university and a woman was mentioned that was
close to terminal, and she went into complete remission within a few
weeks or something like that.  I regularly read the NYTimes online,
Economist online, Science News print, Scientific American print, but
I've done searches everywhere I could think of and haven't been able
to find it.  If you can find it I'll be very happy

---

Request for Question Clarification by feilong-ga on 11 Mar 2003 12:27 PST

Hello Kemason,

Can you recall what type of cancer is treated by the new treatment? It
would help a lot if you can add some more details so we can get the
right article.

Regards,
Feilong

---

Clarification of Question by kemason-ga on 11 Mar 2003 13:15 PST

Unfortunately I can't remember the kind of cancer that is being
treated (this is part of what I was trying to remember) -- the
University might've been Duke, but then again it might not have been
-- I remember that the treatment was something very new (not available
to the general public) -- and that the woman had to petition to get
into it or something like that.  I wish I could remember more.

---

Request for Question Clarification by feilong-ga on 11 Mar 2003 13:28 PST

Thanks for your reply. I would have to make do with the current info.
Just in case you remember other relevant details, please don't
hesitate to post it here.

---

Clarification of Question by kemason-ga on 11 Mar 2003 14:28 PST

Will do (mostly posting this to remove the "attention needed" flag --
so I can accurately tell next time attention really is needed)

---

Request for Question Clarification by pinkfreud-ga on 11 Mar 2003 19:52 PST

kemason,

Several hours of searching has turned up dozens of possible drugs and
hundreds of articles. I have not found anything that is a perfect
match for your description, but I have come across some drugs that
fight cancer in the way you describe, by manipulating growth hormones.

Here are some interesting articles about cancer drugs which have
produced remarkable remissions:

http://alumni.ucsd.edu/headline/sp01/050801_druker.html

http://www.the-scientist.com/yr2000/may/research_000515.html

http://www.observer.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,910467,00.html

I could post an answer to your question that consisted of an overview
of this type of drug, with links to many sources similar to the
articles linked above, and/or abstracts of medical studies. However, I
have no certainty that I would be able to home in on the specific
article that you are looking for, in the absence of further clues. I
very much doubt that any Researcher can have that certainty, although
some might take the 'shotgun' approach in attempting to answer your
question by listing links to a number of such articles.

I have a great deal of interest in this subject matter (if you'll look
at my profile, by clicking the highlighted name "pinkfreud-ga" above,
you will see that I've answered quite a few questions in the medical
field.) At your request, I would be glad to provide an answer which
would offer links to a plenitude of information about recent
developments in cancer-fighting drugs, but I cannot guarantee that I
will be able to produce the specific article that you are seeking.

~pinkfreud

---

Request for Question Clarification by feilong-ga on 12 Mar 2003 02:41 PST

Kemason,

I agree with Pinkfreud. I made a lengthy search on this and there are
far too many have that similar contents. Any researcher can make a
shotgun approach and post as many links as he/she can but without
guarantee that one of them is the specific article. More detail is
required to get the page.

There is another way to find the page but the chances are remote since
you mentioned that you saw it a few months ago. It could still be
inside your system's History folder or Temporary Internet Files --
that depends on your system settings and/or if you did not delete your
Temporary Internet Files.

-Feilong

---

Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 12 Mar 2003 04:41 PST

Any of these sound familiar?  They're not hormone-acting drugs, but
all are recent news items from the sources you mentioned:

January 2003

By injecting leukemia patients with part of a protein found in greater
abundance on cancerous cells than on healthy ones, researchers have
been able to induce some patients' immune systems to fight this blood
cancer.

Nov. 2002

Because cancer arises from a person's own cells, it's often overlooked
by the immune system. In the past decade, however, scientists have
discovered that some immune system cells do indeed recognize tumor
cells. There's still a problem: Being few in number, these cells are
typically ineffective in fighting cancer.

Scientists can extract these potential fighters from cancer patients.
Then they culture the rare cells, which are a type of T cell, to
greatly expand their number. Two new studies indicate that when these
multiple copies, or clones, of T cells are injected into the patients,
they sometimes put the brakes on cancer.


Dec 2002

The cancer drug imatinib created a stir a few years ago when it
rescued leukemia patients who had failed to improve on other
treatments. Now, in the first large-scale test of the drug in people
newly diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), imatinib has
stopped or reversed the disease in nearly all patients receiving it.

---

Clarification of Question by kemason-ga on 12 Mar 2003 09:31 PST

Sorry to all those who spent time looking for this -- if there is a
way I can tip you guys without closing this out, please let me know.

I've done a ton of research myself, was just hoping to find this exact
article and thought maybe someone here would have better luck than I. 
If I remember something that would help narrow it down even further I
will post it here.

---

Request for Question Clarification by luciaphile-ga on 18 Mar 2003 17:26 PST

Hi kemason-ga,

Two questions if I may:

Do you recall if the article was from 2003?

And are you certain that it was human growth hormone involved?

Regards,
luciaphile-ga

---

Clarification of Question by kemason-ga on 19 Mar 2003 10:32 PST

In regards to: Request for Question Clarification by luciaphile-ga on
18 Mar 2003 17:26 PST
 
Do you recall if the article was from 2003? 
I'm pretty sure it was 2003, but it may have been late 2002 as well
 
And are you certain that it was human growth hormone involved? 
I am almost positive it was human growth hormone -- In my research,
I've found a lot of references to epidermal growth hormone as it
relates to breast cancer, and I'm pretty positive it wasn't this.

I searched Medline - a database of several million articles, mostly
from peer-reviewed scientific journals.  I used the query phrase
"growth hormone receptor AND antagonist AND cancer[mesh]" and got 14
hits - a low number really.  It seems that the drug may well be
pegvisomant, and the cancer, a pituitary tumour.  Other articles note
that hGH receptors may be expressed by, for example breast carcinomas.
 Anyway - check out these two abstracts - they may help you refine
your search.


1: Expert Opin Investig Drugs  2001 Sep;10(9):1725-35 

The place of pegvisomant in the management of acromegaly.

Parkinson C, Trainer PJ.

Department of Endocrinology, Christie Hospital, Wilmslow Road,
Manchester, M20
4BX, UK.

Conventional treatments for acromegaly include surgery, radiotherapy,
dopamine
agonists and somatostatin (SMS) analogues, which effect disease
control by
lowering circulating growth hormone (GH). Due to variability in tumour
characteristics, combinations of these treatment modalities leave a
significant
number of patients with sub-optimal serum GH and insulin-like growth
factor-I
(IGF-I) levels, which have been linked to increased morbidity and
mortality. The
GH receptor antagonist pegvisomant is a genetically engineered
analogue of GH
that prevents functional dimerisation of the growth hormone receptor
(GHR); a
process that is critical to GH action at the cellular level. A crucial
amino
acid substitution at Gly(120) to Arg(120) within the third alpha helix
of the
antagonist prevents functional GHR dimerisation. Pegvisomant
represents a novel
treatment for acromegaly as, unlike existing treatment modalities, the
effectiveness of pegvisomant is independent of pituitary tumour
characteristics.
Initial clinical studies in patients with active acromegaly have
demonstrated
serum IGF-I normalisation in over 90% of patients receiving 20 mg per
day, such
that, in terms of serum IGF-I normalisation, pegvisomant now
represents the most
effective medical treatment for acromegaly. Although there are limited
long-term
data on the use of pegvisomant and questions regarding pituitary
tumour growth
and altered liver function remain, this therapy offers the prospect of
serum
IGF-I normalisation in the vast majority of patients with active
acromegaly.

Publication Types:
    Review
    
Review, Tutorial
    

PMID: 11772281 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]



2: Growth Horm IGF Res  2001 Jun;11 Suppl A:S121-3 

Cancer and the potential place for growth hormone receptor antagonist
therapy.

Friend KE.

MD Anderson Cancer Center, University of Texas, Houston, USA.
Keith.Friend@am.pnu.com

Pegvisomant is a recombinant protein, structurally similar to natural
human
growth hormone (GH), which is capable of binding to the GH receptor as
a
competitive antagonist. As well as being evaluated for the treatment
of
acromegaly, pegvisomant is being investigated as a possible
antineoplastic
agent, initially in mice. So far, in vitro efficacy against meningioma
and in
vivo efficacy against colon and breast cancer cell lines have been
examined.

Publication Types:
    Review
    
Review, Tutorial
    

PMID: 11527083 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]



3: Growth Horm IGF Res  2001 Jun;11 Suppl A:S111-4 

Experience with pegvisomant in the treatment of acromegaly.

Drake WM.

Department of Endocrinology, St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, UK.
will_drake@canada.com

Established modalities of therapy for acromegaly (surgical
adenomectomy,
external beam pituitary irradiation, oral dopamine agonists, and
injectable
somatostatin analogues) have as their common goal the lowering of
circulating
growth hormone (GH) levels, with a consequent reduction in serum
insulin-like
growth factor I (IGF-I). Pegvisomant is a GH receptor antagonist that
inhibits
GH receptor dimerization and has a powerful ability to lower serum
IGF-I levels
in patients with active acromegaly. Currently available data suggest
that
pegvisomant is an effective treatment for acromegaly that is safe,
well
tolerated, and not associated with expansion of residual pituitary
tumour over
the time period studied.

Publication Types:
    Review
    
Review, Tutorial
    

PMID: 11527081 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

I had also looked in Medline and found the articles listed by xarqi
and then looked further into the pegvisomant idea. However, I think it
unlikely that this is the treatment referred to in the question.

Acromegaly is due to a benign (non-cancerous) tumour of the pituitary,
so this condition itself would not be the one in question. The
suggestion of a possible role for pegvisomant in treating breast
cancer is due to it decreasing levels of circulating IGF-1.  IGF-1 is
associated with some forms of breast cancer.  However, despite the
encouraging findings in cell culture, as mentioned in one of the
abstracts listed here, there are no reports in Medline of pegvisomant
being tried in humans with breast cancer (or colon cancer).  I have
not found any reports of clinical trials of this sort in
http://clinicaltrials.gov/ nor did I find any relevant information on
the Internet.

Scientific and medical stories that appear in the popular science
press and general media generally do so after the finding has been
reported in the scientific literature, or at least at a conference. 
It is considered bad form to communicate with the media before the
topic is available for discussion and assessment by the scientific
community. Just in case, I searched on pegvisomant through the NLM
Gateway http://gateway.nlm.nih.gov/gw/Cmd which includes a meeting
abstracts collection, but with no luck.

If anyone does wish to pursue the pegvisomant idea further, the drug
is now produced by Pharmacia.  Pegvisomant is the generic name, and
Pharmacia's brand name is Somavert.