GLG News by Oncologists who Treat Hematologic Malignancies (US)

Amgen expects the FDA to ease restrictions on its erythropoietin product (Aranesp) plus has an osteoporosis drug that is coming up for approval and addition to an already crowded field.

Integrating conventional blood analysis with flow cytometry paves the way for penetration from the former routine testing market into the latter, specialized cancer testing market.  This platform has the potential to broaden penetration by offering more test capabilities onto an existing platform....

Kosan's Bioscience is investigating if its Hsp-90 inhibvitor,  Tanespimycin can improve on the efficacy of Velcade ( Millenium) in patients with Multiple Myeloma (MM) in first relapse. TIME-1 trial is well designed and well powered to test the primary endpoint of prolonging the PFS by ~ 3...

Therapy for refractory non Hodgkins lymphoma (NHL) patients especially Rituxan resistant, in non existant! Radioconjugates such as Bexxar or Zevalin are available but there is always room for another therapeutic alternative.

XL184 is a small molecule that simultaneously inhibits the MET, RET and VEGFR receptor tyrosine kinases. It appears to evercome resistance to Erlotinib (Tarceva, Genentech) and will be tested in a phase I (safety) and phase II (efficacy) trials with and without Tarceva.

The holy grail of pharmacology is specificity, inventing drugs that faithfully reach their target but do not affect other cells.  Monoclonal antibodies have potential but have not yet reached that mark.  Monoclonal T cell receptors (mTCR) might succeed where all other drugs have failed.

“As reported at the American Society of Hematology Meeting, the clinical efficacy we have seen with INCB18424 in the first eleven myelofibrosis patients treated in this study is impressive and unprecedented. We are now seeing the same dramatic results in the expanded cohort of 21 additional patients,...

This HSP90 inhibitor is being given in a trial with Velcade or Velcade alone. Good trial!! ALSO, may work in Herceptin resistant breast cancer patients. Way cool!

Oncologists rely heavily on hormone and HER-2 status to guide treatment recommendations for women with breast cancer.  If the results of these important tests are incorrect up to 20% of the time, we may be suboptimally treating many breast cancer patients.

Breast cancer therapy is directed by estrogen, progesterone receptor and Her2Neu testing. If the results are not correct then drugs are either being given or denied inappropriately