Combo Gene-Targeting Therapies Show Promise for Advanced Liver and Pancreatic Cancer Patients

New findings from case studies have shown the potential of personalized treatment in achieving complete response in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and adenocarcinoma of the pancreas.

Researchers from the Burzynski Research Institute, Inc. (BRI) and the Burzynski Clinic, Inc. (BC; Houston, TX, USA) presented case studies of patients with advanced liver and pancreatic cancers who were treated with combination gene-targeted therapies. These initial study results were discussed at the recently convened 2009 International Congress on Anticancer Treatment in Paris, France.

The congress is an international educational and scientific meeting that gathers together the world's foremost scientists and oncology experts to provide comprehensive updates in the management of cancer. Barbara Burzynski, M.D., Robert Weaver, M.D., Eva Kubove, M.D., and Stanislaw R. Burzynski, M.D., Ph.D., represented BRI and BC, presenting two reports of early results of combination gene-targeted agents in a specific group of patients treated at BC.

Pancreatic cancer continues to create very difficult therapeutic problems for clinicians. Conventional chemotherapy has shown to be limited in managing the disease for the longer term. The report summarized the initial effects of combination gene-targeted therapies to treat 11 patients with advanced pancreatic cancer, including a case study on a patient in complete response seven months after the diagnosis of his disease.

Hepatocellular carcinoma is a primary liver cancer that carries nearly 100% mortality and has shown to be highly resistant to traditional therapies. The discussion undertaken at the congress looked at preliminary findings across a group of seven patients undergoing personalized treatment of their disease. Case reports highlighted involve two patients diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma who failed standard therapy; one of them relapsing post liver transplant. Both patients have achieved complete response.

"These cases require longer follow-up and confirmation in a larger patient population. However, the early results are quite compelling when you consider the deadly outcome of these advanced liver and pancreatic cancers,” said Stanislaw R. Burzynski, M.D., Ph.D.

The Burzynski Research Institute is a biopharmaceutical company that develops treatment for cancer based on genomic and epigenomic principles. Research and development efforts are focused on basic research and phase III clinical trials.

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Burzynski Research Institute
Burzynski Clinic