Blocking Autophagy With Anti-Malarial Drug Finds Clinical Success

In the largest group of results to date, researchers from Penn Medicine's Abramson Cancer Center and other institutions have shown in clinical trials that the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) blocked autophagy in a host of aggressive cancers—glioblastoma, melanoma, lymphoma and myeloma, renal and colon cancers—and in some cases helped stabilize disease. Autophagy—an essential process cancer cells need to fuel their growth—is a key troublemaker spurring tumor growth. Block this pathway, many preclinical studies suggest, and anti-cancer agents such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy will be able to do their job better.

Results of six trials—five in humans (with over 200

) and one in dogs—are all reported in the

, and will be presented at the

in Austin, Texas, on Monday, May 26, by author Ravi K. Amaravadi, MD, assistant professor of Medicine in the division of Hematology/Oncology at the Perelman School of Medicine and co-leader of the Cancer Therapeutics Program at Penn Medicine's Abramson Cancer Center, who was the principal investigator on four of the six trials, which included a multi-disciplinary team of investigators at Penn Medicine and other institutions treating a wide range of cancers.

patientsMay online issue of AutophagyKeystone Symposia on Autophagy

Original report: http://bit.ly/1kwOvLq

Source: MedicalXpress