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Gel studied as cancer treatment

Posted on: Friday, 17 April 2009, 22:45 CDT

U.S. gastroenterologists are studying a new system for delivering chemotherapy for esophageal cancer patients.

The drug therapy delivers a highly concentrated dose of chemotherapy directly to hard-to-reach tumors of esophageal cancer patients. The aim is to reduce the size of the tumors.

Patients with esophageal cancer have very few treatment options, study principal investigator Dr. Sohrab Mobarhan of the Coleman Foundation Comprehensive Clinic for Gastrointestinal Cancers at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago said in a statement. This also could potentially be a viable treatment option for patients who have inoperable tumors located in their esophagus.

The investigational drug, OncoGel, is made of two major components -- the ReGel drug delivery system, which is a gel made up of ingredients used in biodegradable stitches, and paxclitaxel, an established, U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved anti-cancer chemotherapy agent. Patients receive a one-time injection of OncoGel during an endoscopy.

In an earlier phase of the study of OncoGel in patients with late stage inoperable esophageal cancer, 70 percent of patients had a reduction in tumor volume when OncoGel was used in combination with radiotherapy. In addition, after treatment, biopsy samples did not contain tumor cells in almost 40 percent of patients.

Source: United Press International

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