Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 31, 1993                   TAG: 9303310056
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SAN DIEGO                                LENGTH: Medium

CANCER GENE TARGETED NEW THERAPY MAY HELP CONTROL MANY FORMS OF TUMORS

The new treatment is intended to block a cancer-causing gene - a so-called oncogene - that appears to play a role in cancer of the breast and pancreas, among other organs.

Although the ultimate cause of cancer is often a mystery, scientists have learned in recent years that mutations in several genes are critical steps on the path to malignancy. When these normal genes go bad, cells lose control over their growth, and cancer results.

The latest approach is intended to short-circuit this process by attacking an oncogene known in scientific shorthand as neu.

At the University of California, Los Angeles, Dr. Dennis J. Slamon has started safety testing of an antibody intended to thwart the protein made by the neu gene's protein. While early results are considered encouraging, the works is still too preliminary to judge whether it will work.

Meanwhile, Dr. Mark I. Greene of the University of Pennsylvania, who is developing a similar strategy, said it has shown great promise in tumor-prone lab animals. He plans to begin testing it on people within a year.

He said his animal studies provide "the first demonstration that one can prevent genetically driven tumors."

The neu oncogene makes a protein called P185. This plays a role in triggering cells' uncontrolled growth. Greene's strategy is to fashion an antibody that locks onto this protein and renders it harmless.

"It opens up an approach for preventing breast cancer by a whole new mechanism - by interfering with gene products," commented Dr. Victor Vogel of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

Greene presented his findings Tuesday at a meeting of the American Cancer Society.

Greene, whose team discovered the neu oncogene nearly a decade ago, said it is involved in about 30 percent of breast cancer. This is the second-leading cause of cancer death after lung cancer in women and will claim about 46,000 lives this year.

Greene has experimented largely in mice that have been genetically manipulated to develop a form of cancer indistinguishable from neu-related breast cancer in people.