Leaders in Pharmaceutical Business Intelligence (LPBI) Group

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

SOURCE: Time Magazine, April 1, 2013: How to Cure Cancer by Bill Saporito

Key argument: Now the Cure for Cancer is possible thanks to the following innovations in the Division of Labor of the research process among institution.

1.  New Cancer Dream Teams deliver better results faster, better understand the metabolic changes of pancreatic cells.

Team Leader: Dan Von Hoff – A five phase parallel process of the Cancer Research endeavor: One tumor researched by FIVE Labs in parallel

• Penn surgeon, Jeffrey Drebin removes tissue from a cancerous pancreas. Tissue is carried to Hospital Lab where it is prepared for analysis and frozen for preservation.
• a piece will go to Princeton for metabolomic profiling, amino acids, sugar glutamine and up to 300 metabolites.
• a piece will go to John Hopkins for DNA analysis by sequence analysis
• a piece will go to Translational Genomics for chromosome analysis
• a piece will go to Salk Institute for a look at the stellate (star shape. tissue repair function, also plays a role in cancer) cells – gene expression analysis Lab

Joint Lab work: Superior to any research ever known.

2. Drug agents in development for therapy targeting the genetic mutations

• reactivate the body’s immune system
• cut off a tumor’s blood or energy supply
• restart apoptosis

3. New Biomarkers

• Allows to identify, target and track cancer cells – PI3K mutation One pathway – three women’s Cancers: Ovarian, endometrial, Breast CA.
• Dream Team led by

– Dr. Gordon Mills of MD Anderson, PI3K pathway investigator

Teams Science include:

– Women’s cancer specialist from MGH

– Dana Farber (Harvard)

– Vanderbilt University

– Columbia University

– BIDMC

– Memorial Sloan Kettering

Dream Teams results are better than Big Pharma: 95% failure rate for new oncology drugs 50% of Phase III trials – don’t cut it to FDA approval.

Dream Teams will launch Trial as soon as geneticists and biochemists match mutation to drug compound.

Big Targets: Pancreas, Breast Cancer, Lung Cancer

Example: Human trial at FIVE institutions (28-person team) with TWO unapproved drugs from TWO companies with one year of discovery

PARP inhibitor from AstraZeneca was combined with PI3K inhibitor from Novartis to combat BRCA1 gene mutation that develops ovarian cancer and triple negative Breast Cancer. Two unapproved drugs are combined. Result was without precedent.

4. Design and built of a smart chip device to trap circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in a blood sample – early identification of metastasis

5. Better chances of Five-year Survival Rates

• 1975-1977 – 49%
• 1978-1989 – 56%
• 2002 – 2008 – 68%

6. More Americans who have a History of Cancer are alive today than in the past

[including Cancer-free and in-treatment]

• 2004 – 10.8 millions
• 2008 – 12 millions
• 2012 – 13.7 millions

7. There are 94 millions ex-smokers in the US – elevated risk for lung Cancer. 175,00 new lung cancers diagnosed every year. MD Anderson is developing a simple blood test for protein marker that could detect lung cancer earlier than it is found, test to be used in combination with diagnostic imaging and risk models

8. Probability of developing some type of Cancer over one’s lifetime:

• Men – 1 in 2
• Women – 1 in 3

9. Funding of Dream Team Science by Stand Up to Cancer ( SU2C) Hollywood investment in Cancer Research

10. Cancer Statistics in the US

• 2013: 580,350 will die of Cancer, NCI figures and 1.7 millions will be diagnosed, numbers will grow as population ages (1.4 millions in 2006)
  
• 2013L Leading Types of Cancer: Prostate, Breast, Lung &Bronchus (~250,000 each type), colon (~100,000)
• Cost of Cancer in 2008: Medical – $77.4 Billion, lost productivity – $124 Billion

11. Research at John Hopkins is focused on studying the the enzymatic on/off switches of gene expression including mutated genes that produce cancer cells.

12. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center – extensive research on Epigenetics, New epigenetic drugs can shrink tumors. Complete remission is experienced by patients treated with drugs that nudges T Cells.

Cancer is a complexed disease.