MJP SPONSORS RESEARCH INTO EWINGS SARCOMA..

Dr Sue Birchill / Steve Myatt  :  St James's University Hospital, Leeds.

The primary goal of the laboratory research programme is to identify new theraputic targets/strategies and clinically relevant prognostic indicators in the Ewings Sarcoma family of tumours and exploit these for therapeutic advantage and improved survival.

Recurrence and metastases continue to pose the most difficult challenge for the management and successful treatment of the ESFT, the 5-year survival for patients with metastatic disease is 10-20%. This emphasises the urgent need for new strategies for the treatment ESFT.

The MJP Cancer Care Trust Fund is currently sponsoring/supporting the work of Steve Myatt, a young scientist at the laboratory. He shares the optimism of the laboratory's chief researcher, Dr Sue Burchill, for the exploitation of 4-Hydroxy(phenyl)retinamide, the compound that Steve is working on, as a useful treatment of Ewing's Sarcoma.

UPDATE: 14th OCTOBER 2005 - From Dr Susan A Burchill

Currently our work is focused on how we might best use fenretinide to treat those with tumours of the Ewing's sarcoma family more effectively, and what the design of a clinical trial with fenretinide and conventional chemotherapy should be.

Work by some people working in other cancer types has suggested that fenretinide might sensitise patients to chemotherapy, making the tumours respond better to the treatments currently used. However in Ewing's sarcoma we have no evidence to suggest this would be valuable.

Our data supports the idea that fenretinide might target minimal disease. Many patients will respond to the chemotherapies that are used in the clinic today, the problem is often that they then relapse i.e. the first treatment hasn't destroyed all the cancer cells leaving what is called minimal disease behind. If fenretinide kills this minimal disease then patients will have increased survival, may be cure.

There are two additional important aspects that we need to consider before a clinical trial is started :

1.    Can we measure the fenretinide levels in plasma of patients to ensure they are getting enough active drug to have an effect (we have funding from Cancer Research UK to study this)

2.    How can we monitor if the patient is responding to fenretinide (i.e. What biomarkers will identify patients that are responding).

The work that Steven has carried out (with support from MJP CANCER CARE TRUST FUND) has identified a number of what are called "biomarkers" that we might be able to use to determine if a patient is responding to fenretinide (i.e. 2. Above).

In the next year we will use some of the money from the MJP FUND to evaluate these markers in our models, and if they work we will be able to use them in the clinical trial.

The European clinicians are investigating the possibility of evaluating fenretinide in a small trial towards the end of next year, at the moment there are negotiations with colleagues in America (who make the drug in tablet format) to see if the agent can be released for this first study. It is very exciting, and nerve-racking. However, the work continues to go well and was recognised for its excellence at the international SIOP meeting in Vancouver, Canada two weeks ago when I received the Fasanelli prize on behalf of the group. This is a prize awarded annually for the best piece of work and presentation of data in the field of Ewing's sarcoma, and it is a great honour to receive this award. Some of the work I presented was carried out by Steven Myatt, using the funds the MJP CANCER CARE TRUST FUND have generously given the laboratory.

Steven is currently busy writing his PhD thesis, which he hopes to submit before the end of the year. He will then be examined orally by two very distinguished researchers; I am sure he will perform well and be awarded the degree of philosophy (PhD) early in 2006.

MJP CANCER CARE TRUST FUND Wishes Steven well with his study & examinations..