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More recently, NCI-funded scientists at the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston tested ADI-PEG in a small number of people with the most common liver cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and cirrhosis - with exciting results.
Most patients with HCC and cirrhosis live less than two months. When surgery is possible, the outlook improves, but a mere 6 percent of liver cancer patients are candidates for surgery. The ADI-PEG shrank tumors sufficiently so that two patients could undergo surgery. Larger trials to find the best treatment dose are now under way at the Pascale National Cancer Institute in Naples, Italy and at the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, the latter with NCI support.
Some patients in the Italian study have been disease-free for more than two years. The numbers are small, but researchers are excited about the results because of the decrease in deaths and because the treatment produces few side effects and appears to be well tolerated. ADI-PEG does not damage normal, healthy cells.
Other types of cancer rely on arginine, notably melanoma. To a greater or lesser extent, sarcoma, leukemia, lymphoma, and cancers of the breast, brain, cervix, lung, and colon also are nourished by arginine. Researchers hope to study ADI-PEG's impact on these cancers as well.
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