#COLOL RECTAL CANCER AND HIV TRIAL#

“We found that repeat sequences in the genome were being expressed at high levels in cancer and that these sequences behaved like viruses,” Ting told Contagion.

The study authors wrote that it was highly tolerated. Then, the investigators adjusted the dose four-fold and the remaining 23 patients received lamivudine therapy. In this study, the first 9 patients with colorectal cancer received the HIV-standard dose of lamivudine. “Disease stability in a cancer patient population this advanced, with just one single agent, is highly unusual and we are hoping we can soon initiate a larger phase 3 study with a three-drug reverse transcriptase inhibitor combination.”

#COLOL RECTAL CANCER AND HIV TRIAL#

“We did the trial to see if we could learn something new about the biology of cancer cells and in the process found this unexpected, very encouraging result,” study author David T. The study authors hypothesized that this type of therapy might prevent a cancer or recurrence, or turn a metastatic disease into a chronic disease. The study authors noted that among HIV patients who receive antiretroviral therapy like lamivudine have less incidence of colon, breast, and prostate cancer compared to the general population. Lamivudine is a reverse transcriptase inhibitor used in HIV therapy. In pre-clinical trials conducted by the same research team, the investigators learned that colorectal cancer cells were sensitive to lamivudine and reduced their ability to move and induced an inflammatory response in the tumor cells, a press release noted.

Investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital studied 32 fourth-line metastatic colorectal cancer patients in order to determine the effects of lamivudine on the cancer cells. The HIV therapy lamivudine stopped disease progression in a quarter of metastatic colorectal cancer patients, according to the findings of a Phase 2 trial published in Cancer Discovery.

Colol rectal cancer and hiv