UPCI Researchers Present Drug Discovery FINDINGS at AACR Annual Meeting

San Diego, April 11, 2008 – Recent discoveries in drug treatments for cancer will be presented by Merrill J. Egorin, MD, co-director of the molecular therapeutics/drug discovery program at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI), and members of his laboratory, at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting, April 12 to 16, in San Diego.

In addition, Dr. Egorin will present a “Meet the Expert” session from 7 to 8 a.m., Wednesday, April 16, entitled “Challenges in Defining Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamic Relationships.”

“The goal of our program is to rapidly identify and develop innovative drug treatments for cancer,” said Dr. Egorin. “We want to find the most effective, least toxic treatments possible. Our poster presentations this year represent the different ways we approach this research.”

Robert Parise and Jan Beumer, PhD, will present, “A Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometric Assay for Quantitation of the PARP Inhibitor ABT-888 and its Metabolite in Human Plasma,” abstract number 206. The National Cancer Institute (NCI)-funded study evaluated ABT-888, a drug that sensitizes cancer cells to chemotherapy as well as radiation therapy by developing and validating a liquid chromatography-mass spectrometric (LC-MS) assay. “This particular assay will help us measure ABT-888 in human plasma,” said Dr. Egorin. “We need extraordinarily sensitive and accurate ways to measure early drugs because we don’t know the maximum tolerated doses of new drugs. Having developed an assay to quantify ABT-888, we are now supporting three phase I clinical trials evaluating it in combination with a variety of chemotherapies, with the aim of helping patients who have developed resistance to those, or other, chemotherapies.”

A second poster, abstract number 768, entitled “Quantitation of the Novel Topoisomerase I Inhibitor, NSC 724998, in Dog Plasma by LC-MS/MS,” will be presented by Julianne Holleran, a postdoctoral fellow working in Dr. Egorin’s laboratory. This presentation, also funded by the NCI, discusses the successful creation of an LC-MS assay for the novel Topoisomerase I inhibitor NSC 724998 in dog plasma. This successful assay will be a valuable tool in the development of this drug, which is about to enter clinical trials.

Julie L. Eiseman, PhD, associate professor of pharmacology, and her postdoctoral fellow, Lihua Bai, PhD, will present their poster, abstract number 3317, “Efficacy of Phthalocyanine 4 Photodynamic Therapy and Non-invasive Pharmacokinetics of Pc 4 in Mice Bearing MDA-MB-231 Xenografts,” as part of the “Experimental and Molecular Therapeutics 30” group. According to Dr. Bai, in photodynamic therapy, cancer cells are killed by the reactive oxygen species generated through the interaction of photosensitizer, light and oxygen. By selectively irradiating the tumor, normal tissues can be spared. For this study, Drs. Eiseman and Bai evaluated the efficacy of Phthalocynine 4 (Pc 4), a drug that, like all photosensitizers, when absorbed by cancer cells and then exposed to light, becomes active and kills the cancer cells. They found that with both fractionated and continuous laser treatments, Pc 4 photodynamic therapy resulted in tumor regression.

“This is exciting because sparing normal tissue during cancer treatment reduces toxicity,” said Dr. Eiseman, principal investigator of the project and Dr. Bai’s mentor.

Founded in 1984, the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute became a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center in record time (by 1990). UPCI, the only cancer center in western Pennsylvania with this elite designation, serves the region;s population of more than 6 million. Presently, UPCI receives a total of $154 million in research grants, and is ranked 10th in funding from the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

# # #