The childhood nerve cancer neuroblastoma shows weakness
By activating the tumor suppressor p53, a new drug may slow the malignancy, a study in mice shows
By Nathan Seppa
A compound that unleashes one of the body’s best tumor-suppressing proteins may someday come to the aid of cancer’s littlest victims — children with neuroblastoma. The compound, called nutlin-3, limits the growth of these nervous system tumors in mice, scientists report in the Nov. 18 Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
What’s more, nutlin-3 slowed the growth of neuroblastoma that was already resistant to the effects of a frontline chemotherapy drug and limited the spread of the cancer in the animals.
Nutlin-3 works by freeing up the cancer-fighting protein p53, which gets bogged down in patients with neuroblastoma and other cancers.
These results and previous laboratory findings have paved the way for tests of nutlin family compounds in cancer patients. The first human trials are just getting under way, with Hoffmann-La Roche recruiting adults with leukemia or bone cancer who have relapsed.