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February 29, 2000
Clinical trials: Vitamin may be 'Trojan Horse'
for cancer detection
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Human clinical trials are in progress to determine whether a simple vitamin will provide earlier and better detection of ovarian cancer, commonly known as "the silent killer."
At Purdue University, researchers discovered a way to diagnose and potentially cure ovarian cancer by using the vitamin folate. The diagnostic procedure, FolateScan, was then developed by Endocyte, Inc., located in the Purdue Research Park.
Approximately 14,000 women die in the United States each year from ovarian cancer – a cancer that shows few, if any, symptoms until it has spread to other parts of the body.
This technology, being tested in Phase I/II Federal Drug Administration human clinical trials, represents the first time a vitamin has been used to detect cancer. Funded in part by the National Institutes of Health's National Cancer Institute, the trials are in progress at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, Washington University in St. Louis and M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute in Houston.
A Purdue research group headed by Philip Low, professor of chemistry, found that the rapidly dividing cancer cells employ a special receptor to increase their uptake of folic acid – a member of the vitamin B complex.
"By attaching a radioactive imaging agent to the folic acid or folate, we have been able to feed the cancer cells a 'beacon' that is visible when the patient undergoes a nuclear imaging scan," Low said. "This 'Trojan Horse' method can be used to target cancer specifically."
Dr. Greg Sutton, the Mary Fendrich Hulman Professor of Gynecologic Oncology at the IU School of Medicine, said, "If scanning proves successful in detecting the cancer, it also may be possible to link radioactive or chemotherapeutic agents to folic acid in order to deliver an anti-cancer agent directly to tumor cells."
Traditional chemotherapy attacks cells throughout the entire body and produces significant side effects. Direct targeting of cancer cells, on the other hand, appears to eliminate this problem.
"There are many drugs that are highly toxic to cancer cells, but have failed in human clinical trials because they exhibited severe side effects," said Ron Ellis, chief executive officer of Endocyte, a biotechnology company located in the Purdue Research Park with a worldwide license to this drug-delivery system.
"By using folate to target these drugs to cancer cells and avoid normal cells, we hope to be able to resurrect these very potent anti-cancer compounds."
This first round of human clinical trials is only diagnostic in nature and will determine whether an ovarian mass is benign or malignant, the extent to which the cancer has developed and, if necessary, whether special techniques are necessary to remove the cancer completely.
If successful, the detection procedure should be available for general use within two or three years, Ellis said. The procedure also may be applicable to other cancers that overexpress the folate receptor.
Sources: Philip Low, (317) 494-5273; plow@purdue.edu
Ron Ellis, Endocyte, (765) 463-7175; prellis@endocyte.com
Writer: Jeanine Smith, (765) 496-3133; jsmith@purdue.edu; Mary Hardin, IU School of Medicine, (317) 274-7722; mhardin@iupui.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
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