Ixabepilone-sunitinib combination holds potential against chemotherapy-resistant ovarian cancer
May 10, 2017
Dr. Colon-Otero suggested trying the two drugs on the new cells lines. Neither drug is approved for use in ovarian cancer. Ixabepilone is a chemotherapy drug that, like other taxane drugs, targets the microtubules and stops dividing cells from forming a spindle. It has been approved for use in metastatic breast cancer. Sunitinib, approved for use in kidney cancer, belongs to a class of tyrosine kinase inhibitors that stops growth signals from reaching inside cancer cells.
Prakash Vishnu, M.D., a former fellow at Mayo Clinic in Florida who is now at the Floyd and Delores Jones Cancer Institute in Virginia Mason Medical Center, Seattle, is the first author of the article and led the study under the mentorship of Drs. Colon-Otero and Copland. He found that in both cell lines, cell kill was significantly greater with the combination than use of either drug alone. For example, in chemotherapy-resistant lines (where this potential combination therapy will most likely be used), ixabepilone alone killed up to 30 percent of cells, and the rate for suntinib was up to 10 percent. When the agents were used together, the kill rate was 70 percent.
Dr. Copland said that RhoB is a potential biomarker that may help identify patients who might benefit from such combination therapy.
Source Mayo Clinic