August 12, 1996. Copyright, 1996, Graphic News. All rights reserved

NEW DRUG FOR SKIN CANCER
By Laura Spinney, Science Editor

LONDON, August 12, Graphic News- A new drug for the most serious form of skin cancer could be available in less than two years, say British doctors.
Temozolomide is already known to be effective in the treatment of brain tumours. Earlier this year the drug also showed positive results in trials with patients suffering from advanced malignant melanoma Đ a relatively rare form of skin cancer that develops in the skinŐs pigment-producing cells. The disease is currently treated with anti-cancer drugs whose side-effects can be debilitating, but patients who have been treated with temozolomide appear to suffer fewer side-effects. And 23 per cent of the patients responded to the drug, which matches the response rate of chemotherapy drugs already in use.
Temozolomide works by interfering with the repair of genetic material in tumour cells, which proliferate more rapidly than normal cells. As normal DNA continuously repairs itself, it is likely that the abnormal DNA in tumour cells repairs itself faster and so is more vulnerable to anything that disrupts that repair process. In a new set of trials about to go ahead, the effects of combining temozolomide with a dose of radiation will be studied. Professor Ed Newlands, a medical oncologist at Charing Cross Hospital in London who is involved in the trials, believes the radiation will almost certainly enhance the drugŐs action and improve the patientsŐ chances of survival. ÔFor me itŐs the best drug because itŐs as active as anything we have already and it is better tolerated,Ő he says.
New Jersey-based pharmaceutical company Schering-Plough is now developing the drug further in collaboration with the British charity Cancer Research Campaign. If all goes well, says Professor Malcolm Stevens, who developed the drug for the charity with his colleagues at Aston University, Schering-Plough will apply to the U.S. regulatory authorities for approval next January. With that approval, the drug could be available by the end of 1997 or early 1998.

Sources: Cancer Research Campaign