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2001 Goals
In the
Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, author Stephen Covey
makes the determination that one habit of success is to begin
with the end in mind. Covey might have been describing the
Stehlin Foundation when he wrote that statement. The Stehlin
Foundation’s purpose is to find the best anti-cancer
drugs possible, and with that end in mind, here are Stehlin’s
2001 goals.
Stehlin continues to track and explore 9-NitroCamptothcin
(9NC), now in the final Phase III clinical trials with SuperGen
under the name “rubitecan.” Stehlin also has a number
of non-9NC goals. First, Stehlin researchers will pursue the
following specific 9NC-related goals in 2001:
enhance effectiveness
through combination therapies with chemotherapy, radiation,
heat, and other existing means;
developing transdermal approaches (such as a patch worn on
the skin, which would administer the drug continuously through
the dermal tissues);
continuing to track the distribution of camptothecin throughout
the body, plotting where it accumulates and what it turns
into;
designing new derivatives and pro-drugs which will protect
camptothecin while it is in the body, delaying the body’s
neutralizing effect on the drug, and keeping it in its active
state longer.
Dr. Liehr enthuses about camptothecin: “Camptothecin
has the potential to
become the ultimate, superb standard in the cancer/anti-cancer
drug class.”
Dr. Giovanella agrees: “The amazing power of camptothecin
is that already
the very small percentage remaining active in the human body
– 5% – shows
clinical activity! Since we are seeing curative results at
5%, imagine what would happen to the number of cancerrelated
illnesses and deaths if we could hit 50% activity!” So
an even larger field of endeavor is represented by the goals
not specifically related to 9NC:
Stehlin
researchers are focusing on new and better camptothecin derivatives
– exploring many compounds with lower toxicity than 9NC,
but containing similar or
higher levels of activity than 9NC;
Solid liver transplant from human to mouse. This will be accomplished
via a fascinating serendipity of nature … when humans
have gall bladder surgeries, minute particles of the human
liver are detached and left over. Normally, this small cell
matter would be discarded, but now it can be rescued and used
in mice for testing the interactions of new esters on human
livers;
Estrogens. Dr, Liehr has received an NIH grant to continue
his work of separating the activities of estrogen as a hormone
and as a carcinogen, thus exploring ways of synthesizing new,
safe estrogens. Estradiol, the female hormone circulating
in all humans, has a dual action as a hormone and a carcinogen;
the
metabolic conversion from safe to unsafe happens in certain
tissues such as mammary and uterus. This work has exciting
potential for synthesizing safe estrogen-replacement therapies,
as well as treating and possibly preventing some forms of
estrogenrelating cancer.
The Stehlin Foundation is dedicated to finding more effective
treatments for patients suffering from cancer, and their research
goals and activities are all
promulgated with that end in mind.
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