May 15 Clinical Cancer Research Highlights

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Selected Articles from the May 15, 2008 Issue

The articles referenced in this Highlights section will be available online in HTML and PDF formats to all interested users at no charge until the next issue of Clinical Cancer Research is published. Click on the article title to view the complete article.

View the Table of Contents for the May 15 issue of Clinical Cancer Research.

Clinical Activity of GM-CSF and Thalidomide in Prostrate Cancer

Granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and the immunomodulatory agent thalidomide have clinical activity in advanced prostate cancer. To determine the biological and clinical effects of this combination before to radical prostatectomy, Garcia and coworkers conducted a phase II study. They found that the combination was safe and did not impact on the perioperative morbidity of radical prostatectomy. Although pathologic responses were not observed, most patients achieved a reduction in prostate-specific antigen. Further, they found that the administration of GM-CSF and thalidomide induces the infiltration of dendritic cells and T cells into tumor tissue, showing that the clinical activity of GM-CSF and thalidomide in prostate cancer is immune mediated. 

RRM1 Polymorphisms Predict Gemcitabine Response

Managing Hypertension Induced by VEGF Signaling Inhibitors

The activity of imatinib in leukemia has recently been linked to the organic cation transporter 1 (OCT1) gene SLC22A1. To further understand mechanisms involved in the drug’s cellular entry, Hu and colleagues characterized the interaction of imatinib with 15 transporters in amphibian and mammalian models. They found that imatinib could be transported by various ABC transporters and by OATP1A2, but not by OCT1. An expression microarray, however, showed that SLC22A1 provides a composite surrogate for the expression of multiple transporters relevant to imatinib. Given that it is highly expressed in the intestine, gliomas, and leukemia cells, these findings suggest that OATP1A2 may play a key role in imatinib pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics.