Personalized Treatment For Early Lung Cancer
ScienceDaily (May 3, 2009) — Cancer vaccines and targeted therapies are beginning to offer new treatment options following surgery for patients with early stages of lung cancer, experts said at the first European Multidisciplinary Conference in Thoracic Oncology (EMCTO) in Lugano, Switzerland (1-3 May 2009).
Personalizing therapy is the key strategy for longer and better survival in lung cancer," said Prof Paris Kosmidis, head of the second Medical Oncology Department at Hygeia Hospital in Athens, Greece. "This is particularly important for early stage disease when following surgery, decisions about preventive therapy are based on specific prognostic and predictive factors."
Prof Walter Weder, head of thoracic surgery at the University of Zurich in Switzerland, adds: "At the meeting, several research groups will present data from new and ongoing studies that show how existing treatments might be combined with targeted therapies and new cancer vaccines. We hope that these new treatments will provide further progress."
In one poster presentation at the meeting, researchers describe the results of a study that sought to identify which patients are likely to benefit from an immune-boosting vaccine designed to help the immune system recognize MAGE-A3, a protein that is expressed on about 30% of lung cancers.
Studies have shown that the treatment can help patients avoid or delay cancer recurrence after surgery. At the conference, researchers will describe a gene signature that might predict which patients will benefit from the treatment.
"Because the benefits of vaccination will be limited to a subgroup of patients, strategies to define these patients by means of biomarkers such as a genetic signature are of major clinical relevance, as only these patients might be candidates for vaccination in the future." A larger, phase III, trial of the vaccine is now underway.
The European Multidisciplinary Conference on Thoracic Oncology is organized by the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ESTRO), the European Society of Thoracic Surgeons (ESTS) and the European Respiratory Society (ERS).
整理： 肺癌早期患者的個體化治療 科學日報（2009年5月3日）——專家們在瑞典盧加諾市的首屆歐洲胸部腫瘤學多學科會議(EMCTO)（2009年5月1號到3號）上稱：癌症疫苗和靶向治療即將爲早期肺癌患者提供手術治療外的新選擇。 希臘雅典市的健康女神醫院第二醫學腫瘤科的主任Paris Kosmidis教授表示：個體化治療使肺癌患者存活得更長久、生活質量更好的關鍵策略，這對術後的或基於特殊的預後和預言性因素做預防性治療決定的早期癌症患者尤爲重要。 瑞典蘇黎士大學的胸外科主任Walter Weder教授補充道：會議中，幾個研究小組將提交新的和正在進行的研究中得出的數據，以表明當前的治療如何聯合靶向治療和新的癌症疫苗，我們希望這些新的治療方案將爲促進進一步的研究發展。 會議的一個海報介紹裏，研究者們描述了這樣一項研究結果，試圖弄清楚病人可能從一個計劃幫助免疫系統識別MAGE-A3的免疫增強疫苗中獲益，MAGE-A3是一種在30％的肺癌患者身上表達的蛋白。 研究已經表明這種治療措施能有助於病人在術後避免或推遲癌症的復發。研究者們在會議中將描述一種可能能預測病人是否會從這種治療中獲益的基因標記。 因爲接種疫苗的好處將侷限在一小組的病人身上，所以通過基因印記等生物標記的方法界定出這部分病人與臨牀密切相關，正如這些病人可能在將來作爲接種疫苗的候選者。一項大型的III期疫苗試驗現在正在進行。 胸部腫瘤學的歐洲多學科會議是由歐洲醫學腫瘤學學會(ESMO)、歐洲放射治療學與腫瘤學學會(ESTRO)、歐洲胸外科學會(ESTS)和歐洲呼吸學會(ERS)共同組織的。