Word: interferon
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...anti-viral drugs are on the cutting edge of Hirsch and Groopman's research. They are azidothymidine (AZT), a synthetic drug that was originally designed to combat cancer, and alpha interferon, a relatively new, genetically-engineered substance. Hirsch has just concluded a two-year placebo-controlled, double-blind study of 24 AIDS and ARC patients treated with the interferon, whose results will be revealed in June. In addition, both Hirsch and Groopman are participating in a nation-wide study of AZT in AIDS and ARC patients. Hirsch has already enrolled more than 100 patients, while Groopman is in the process...
...Interferon's performance against other forms of cancer has been inconsistent, but when it does work, the results can be dramatic. It has produced complete remissions (though not necessarily permanent cures) in advanced cases of kidney cancer; in malignant melanoma, a lethal form of skin cancer; and in Kaposi's sarcoma, a skin cancer that often strikes AIDS victims. In one study reported in Houston, just five out of 52 patients with advanced melanoma were successfully treated with interferon. But this handful was extraordinary: all signs of cancer disappeared within four months, even though the disease had spread to such...
Even the most enthusiastic proponents of interferon concede that it is a difficult substance to work with, far more complex than traditional anticancer drugs. Just getting the dosages right can be tricky, and they are different * with each disease. "More is not better with the interferons," says Mathilde Krim of New York City's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. "Giving too much can have the opposite of the desired effect...
Doctors suspect that interferon may be most effective not as a solo performer but in conjunction with other medications. "No single drug is the optimal treatment for any common cancer," says Dr. Ernest Borden of the University of Wisconsin. "The big question over the next five years will be how to combine interferons with other treatments." Particularly promising, says Borden, is combining several types of interferon, since one form seems to enhance the effects of another. Doctors are also excited about the possibility of using interferon together with another powerful, naturally occurring anticancer agent called tumor necrosis factor. "Interferon...
...Some of interferon's failings may stem from the fact that it has been tried mainly in the most desperate cases of cancer, on those for whom no other treatment has worked. "These are the worst possible conditions in which to test it," says Krim. She and others think that interferon holds greater promise for patients with early cancers and those whose immune systems have not been weakened by radiation treatment or chemotherapy. Other potential uses for interferon: heading off the recurrence of tumors after they have been surgically removed, and preventing precancerous conditions like cervical dysplasia from progressing into...