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Patent for Making Combination Chemotherapy Work Better
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
San Jose, CA -- Patent 7,507,704 issued on 03/24/09 to NexGen Biomedical, Inc. founder Mark Zamoyski of San Jose, California discloses an improved method of treating lung, brain, pancreatic, breast and colon cancers that are driven by a mutation known as HER1 overexpression (also called EGFR or c-ErbB-1). The patent presents a case for why today's concurrent HER1 blocker / S-Phase cytotoxic protocols achieve only a fraction of the potential inherent in the combination of the underlying drugs. Novel synergistic protocols are provided.
All proliferating cells progress through 4 distinct phases, in sequence, G1, S, G2, and M. "S-Phase cytotoxics, such as Pfizer's irinotecan or Eli Lilly's gemcitabine, are capable of killing virtually all cells that are in the S-Phase, however, less than one third of cancer cells are typically in the S-Phase during chemotherapy," explains Mark Zamoyski, the inventor. "Mechanistically, HER1 blockers, such as Genentech's erlotinib, AstraZeneca's gefitinib, ImClone's cetuximab and Amgen's panitumumab arrest and aggregate HER1 overexpressing cancer cells in the G1-Phase. This results in S-Phase depletion, greatly reducing the number of cancer cells killed by the S-Phase cytotoxic." The patent provides a crucial modification to the protocols by adding existing drugs to provide S-Phase enrichment at the appropriate time, while using the HER1 blocker to inhibit tumor regrowth between administrations of S-Phase cytotoxic.
Patent 7,507,704 is the third in a series of patents awarded to Mr. Zamoyski for cancer specific S-Phase enrichment relative to administrations of S-Phase cytotoxic chemotherapy. "With less than one third of cancer cells in the S-Phase, today's cytotoxic protocols only extend life expectancy by a few months. Doubling the number of cancer cells in the S-Phase would provide a way of indefinitely keeping most cancers in check. Tripling the number, while simultaneously preventing tumor regrowth between administrations of S-Phase cytotoxic, is required under established principles of chemotherapy for curative outcome. Drugs capable of doing both already exist for many cancers, providing the potential for an immediate advance in cancer treatment under our protocols," according to Mr. Zamoyski. Richard Lepidi, NexGen's business advisor, concludes "The IP has now reached a critical mass that allows us to pursue business collaborations for clinical development of the technology."
More information is available at www.nexgen.biz under Cell Cycle Synchronous Chemotherapy.
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