Ohio State medical researchers may have found a new use for fat.
Irinotecan, also called CPT-11, is widely used to treat many types of cancer, but sometimes is not well received by patients as it causes diarrhea and low blood cell counts, according to the OSU Medical Center.
Researchers at the OSU Comprehensive Cancer Center, Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute are hoping to change that — with fat.
OSU scientists and physicians have extracted SN38, the active ingredient in CPT-11, which comes from a tree found only in China and Tibet, and encased it in a thin layer of liposomes or fat molecules. SN38 by itself has been found to slow tumor growth up to 2,000 times more than CPT-11. The researchers hope that by coating the medication with the liposomes, the drug may mean more effective cancer treatment and fewer side effects.
Dr. Eric Kraut, a member of the experimental therapeutics program, explained the possible advantages.
“The liposome will help prevent the drug from being broken down or degraded into tissues quickly. So the survival of the drug is longer than normal,” he said. “The fat improves the solubility of the drug so it can reach cancer cells more directly.”
Kraut said the liposome will enable to the drug to more easily penetrate into normal tissue.
He said OSU has been working with National Cancer Institute and pharmaceutical companies such as Neofarm, which has the liposome-encapsulating technology.
Right now, the patients are given doses of the drug to see what they can tolerate.
“One exciting thing that is coming out of it is that we are able to give it without severe side effects,” he said. “The coating also protects healthy cells from SN38’s toxic contents.”
There are some restrictions for patients using this form of chemotherapy.
“They need to have good kidney function, good liver function and cannot have cancer that has spread to their central nervous system,” said Beth Fischer, a research nurse.
Fischer explained the patient cannot have received radiation to their abdomen, and they need to have a good activity level.
Research assistant Mindy Collamore said pregnancy or nursing could also exclude a woman from using this form of drug.
Certain genes may react to the drug to cause more harm than good, said Heather Cortes, a sponsor program officer.
“Some patients have been excluded because there is a certain genotype where they will have higher risks of side effects,” Cortes said.
Kraut acknowledged that it is too early to judge SN38.
“We have no idea if this will be better than CPT-11 or if it will be tolerated better,” he said.
It is too early in the study to come to these conclusions, he said.
