Re: Fwd: [RadInfoReq #367] Beksar treatment on news lastnight

["Ronald Frick" <RFRICK@gammacorp.com>]

The following excerpts were obtained from University of Michigan's web site.  No mention of 'bekzar', but it sounds like what they are looking for.

http://www.cancer.med.umich.edu/discover/disfir.htm#lymph

Lymphoma/Leukemia
                    Mark S. Kaminski, M.D., director
                    A promising form of treatment for lymphoma is being studied
                    by Mark S. Kaminski, M.D., and his colleagues. The treatment,
                    called radioimmunotherapy, involves the use of radioactive
                    antibodies which home to tumor cells. Dramatic tumor
                    remissions have been seen in 70 percent of patients who had
                    undergone prior chemotherapy and had either relapsed or
                    were no longer responding to chemotherapy. In a new study
                    being conducted in patients with low-grade lymphoma who
                    have never received any other treatment, 100 percent of
                    patients have had tumor remissions and 70 percent of the time
                    these are complete remissions. In contrast to standard
                    chemotherapy, which can have serious side effects, these
                    patients have had few side effects. 


http://www.cancer.med.umich.edu/news/pro98su.htm#research

                    Research Roundup

                    Promising
                    radioimmunotherapy results
                    A striking 100 percent of newly
                    diagnosed, low-grade
                    non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
                    patients responded to
                    radiolabeled monoclonal antibody therapy as part of a clinical
                    study at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer
                    Center. These preliminary results are based on 32 patients
                    participating in a planned 60-patient study. Seventy-one
                    percent of the 24 patients who had adequate follow-up for at
                    least six months experienced complete remission or complete
                    disappearance of their disease.

                    *It’s particularly encouraging that with a single therapeutic dose,
                    patients were able to achieve ‘molecular’ remissions — a
                    remission state which is believed to coincide with prolonged,
                    durable responses to treatment,* says Mark Kaminski, M.D.,
                    associate professor of internal medicine at the U-M Cancer
                    Center. *Molecular remissions are a rarity in patients treated
                    with conventional chemotherapy.* Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
                    affects the blood and lymph tissues. According to the National
                    Cancer Institute, approximately 270,000 Americans are
                    afflicted with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma each year. Of that total,
                    it is estimated that about 92,000 people have low-grade or
                    transformed low-grade disease, an incurable form of
                    non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.


                    Cancer Information Line 800-865-1125

Ron Frick
rfrick@gammacorp.com

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