Study: Highly Effective New Anti-Cancer Drug Shows Few Side Effects in Mice

A recent study was done by the University of Chicago Medical Center to create a drug that could fight aggressive lung cancers. Professor Yusuke Nakamura, the author of the experiment, screened around 30,000 compounds and found a few that were most likely to work in humans. What was known about these aggressive cancers was the protein TOPK. This protein is produced in many human cancers and is thought to encourage the growth of tumors. Professor Yusuke Nakamura wanted to target this protein with the new drug that lowered levels of toxicity while still shrinking tumors- this drug ended up being named OTS964. In order to test the drug, six mice with LU-99 lung tumors were injected with the drug and studied over a period of two weeks. All the mice recovered from the tumors. In five of the six tested mice the tumors completely shrunk all under 30 days. Even after the drug was no longer administered, all six mice still showed signs of tumor shrinkage. However, their red blood cell count was very low, but they all recovered from this deficiency within two weeks. When tested, no toxicity was detected from the drug. In an earlier drug though, hematopoietic toxicity was found- which increases risk of infections and can cause anemia. They wanted to avoid this. The experiment was highly successful and should be considered a major breakthrough in cancer drugs. The research is not only important for aggressive lung cancers, but can be applied to other cancers as well. Very few drugs have been able to shrink cancerous tumors so quickly. To add to how fantastic this experiment was, Nakamura actually stepped down from his position of the “Director in the Japanese Government’s Office of Medical Innovation to join the Medical

Center” and their research on these cancer drugs. Now, they want to begin a clinical trial as soon as Fall of 2015, hopefully to benefit cancer patients and cancer research as a whole. Nakamura and his team mentioned using OTS964 on other forms of

Cited: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141022143559.htm