HIV drug halts colon cancer progression

Stabilized 25% of trial patients by disrupting repeating elements in the cancer life cycle

A drug widely used in HIV treatment has been shown to halt disease progression in 25 percent of patients with fourth-line metastatic colorectal cancer

The trial's results, published in the journal Cancer Discovery, raise the possibility of unexpected and promising directions in cancer treatment, not just colorectal cancer

The trial included 32 patients with advanced metastatic colon cancer whose disease had progressed despite previous treatments for four cancers

"After giving them just one drug -- and no other -- we saw signs of stabilization of the disease," said co-senior author David T.

The team observed that nine of the 32 patients (28%) had stable disease or mixed responses by the end of the trial

"If we see this response with just one HIV drug, the next obvious trial is to see what else we can achieve with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART)," Ting added,

The first clues to this unusual drug trial were discovered over the past 10 years in Ting's lab and his colleagues

"After giving them only one drug, we saw signs of stabilization of the disease

"Only cancer cells produce these repeated elements, not healthy cells," Ting said

Repeating groups behave much like viruses rely on reverse transcription to replicate themselves and move around the genome

In their preclinical studies, Ting found that colorectal cancer cells were sensitive to lamivudine, reducing their ability to move

The study showed that the incidence of colon, breast and prostate cancers was significantly lower among U.

"We did this trial to see if we could learn something new about the biology of cancer cells, and in the process found this unexpected, very encouraging result," Ting said