Drug May Help Shrink Tumors

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Drug May Help Shrink Tumors

By Delthia Ricks

STAFF WRITER

July 15, 2003

Arthritis remedy Celebrex can boost the effectiveness of chemotherapy for

lung cancer, shrinking tumors and cutting off their blood supply, Manhattan

scientists report in a study published today.

The small research project, which involved patients with the most common

form of the cancer, marks the first time the widely used arthritis

medication has proved effective against active tumors. Previous studies

suggested the drug is effective at inhibiting cancer development before it

starts. In 1999, the Food and Drug Administration licensed Celebrex as a

preventive for patients with a rare genetic condition in which pre-cancerous

polyps develop into colorectal cancer.

The study is the second this year to validate the concept of blocking the

growth of tumor blood vessels, known as anti-angiogenesis. In June, a drug

targeting colorectal cancer, was shown effective in extending patient

survival when used with standard treatment.

Dr. Nasser Altorki, a professor at Weill Cornell Medical College and the

study's chief investigator, reports the lung cancer study in today's Journal

of Clinical Oncology.

He and his team tested Celebrex in 29 patients with non-small cell lung

cancer, the most aggressive form of the disease. All participants took two

pills totaling 800 milligrams each day for seven weeks. (Arthritis patients

usually receive a single 200-mg or 400-mg dose daily.)

Conventional intravenous chemotherapeutic agents, paclitaxel and

carboplatin, were also administered. Paclitaxel acts on the process of

cancer cell division. Carboplatin is a broad spectrum cell toxin. Celebrex

shrinks tumors by denying their blood supply.

Altorki concluded that Celebrex, a product of Pfizer Inc., boosts the

effects of conventional chemotherapy because it weakens tumors.

He said that 62 percent of the patients got " at least a 50 percent tumor

shrinkage " and 24 percent of patients had no remaining evidence of

microscopic disease. Drug treatment was followed by surgical removal of

tissue affected by the cancer, even in instances where there was an absence

of microscopic cells, to ensure that the cancer would not come back.

Eighty percent of lung cancers are caused by smoking, and the disorder is

the leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States. The American Cancer

Society estimates it will kill 160,000 people nationwide this year.

, 80, a Manhattan lawyer, has been given a clean bill of

health after participation in the study. He initially had what was diagnosed

as an inoperable tumor. " I was classic. I smoked from the time I was about

13 years old and I used to smoke about four or five packs a day, " he said.

" I stopped about 15 years ago. " has resumed working full time.

Adnan Naum, 70, a former geology professor at the University of Baghdad who

moved to Manhattan in 1995, was another participant. Even though he had an

excellent response to the treatment, doctors removed 60 percent of one lung

because the cancer had been so pervasive.

Celebrex is a COX-2 inhibitor. Several medications in this class, including

the arthritis drug Vioxx, are being tested as cancer agents.

COX-2 inhibitors block the enzyme cyclooxygenase-2, which is involved in the

production of prostaglandins, molecules that play a strong role in

inflammatory processes. When cancer is present, prostaglandins stimulate the

tumor's growth of tiny feeder vessels that tap into the host's blood supply.

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