A distinguished panel of cancer researchers from across the
nation presented their findings and progress in a symposium at
Covel Commons on Tuesday, providing an inspiring glimpse into the
future of molecular-targeted medicines ““ a new way to prevent
certain types of cancer.
The event, titled “New Advances in Detection and
Prevention of Cancer,” attracted about 180 attendants
throughout the day, including UCLA students and faculty, medical
researchers, registered nurses and surviving cancer patients.
Offered as a collaborative effort by the W.M. Keck Foundation,
the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, the UCLA Lung Cancer
Specialized Program of Research Excellence, UCLA’s David
Geffen School of Medicine and UCLA Extension, the symposium focused
on epithelial cancers ““ a major division of malignant growths
that include breast, prostate, lung, bladder, intestinal and
pancreatic cancers ““ and various techniques being developed
to prevent them.
Malignant growths are tumors that begin to spread throughout the
body, propagating cancer and destroying healthy tissue.
Opening remarks were given by Dr. Steven Dubinett, a medical
professor and the director of the UCLA Lung Cancer Research
Program, who coordinated the all-day symposium.
“We’ve gathered some of the greatest thinkers in the
field of early detection and prevention,” Dubinett said.
The first speaker of the day was Dr. Scott Lippman, professor of
clinical cancer prevention at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson
Cancer Center. Lippman noted a 30-year trend in the growing
significance of prevention in epithelial cancer treatment,
underscoring the theme of the symposium. Historically, the popular
medical approach to cancer treatment has been that of therapy
““ a post-diagnostic reaction to an already-afflicted
patient’s condition.
According to presentation supplements given by Dr. Raymond
DuBois of the Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center, “By the time
an individual is diagnosed with (colorectal cancer), the disease
has often advanced beyond the gut and current treatment regimes are
ineffective and highly toxic. … For a number of reasons, there is
considerable interest in the area of (gastrointestinal) cancer
prevention.”
Both colorectal and gastrointestinal cancers are epithelial, and
often when these growths are discovered, a patient has already
passed a threshold beyond which the cancer is difficult to
treat.
In search of means to prevent and detect epithelial cancers,
several of the researchers are pursuing testing and development of
molecular targeted drugs. Molecular targeted drugs are a relatively
new wave of medicines that are designed to block specific molecules
in the body.
The process behind developing the drugs is long and expensive,
requiring large-scale and long-term studies, such as the Prostate
Cancer Prevention Trial. Biological factors (such as genes or
enzymes) that cause cancer are identified in the research as
targets, then drugs that act at the molecular level are developed
to inhibit the targets.
Lippman’s presentation included details of his own
experiences in developing molecular targeted drugs. In the Prostate
Cancer Prevention Trial, researchers found that a male hormone
which is active in the prostrate gland, dihydrotestosterone,
increased incidence of prostate cancer in males.
“The major risk factor for (prostate) cancer is
age,” Lippman noted, adding that the longer males are exposed
to the hormone, the more their risk increases.
Researchers involved in the trial used a drug called finasteride
(the same drug as Propecia, taken for hair loss) to inhibit the
hormone, which subsequently lowered the overall number of men who
became cancerous in the trial. But in other men, the drug caused
cancer expression to be more severe.
Essentially, researchers are weighing risk in their studies to
determine the best means of preventing cancers with the least
repercussions.
“(Molecular targeting) is still an area of active
study,” Lippman said.
This event follows in the footsteps of last year’s
“Foods for the Future: The Genomics of Bioengineered
Foods” symposium. Sheila King, the program director of UCLA
Extension, said they hope to host more symposiums in the
future.