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Posted 5/8/98
Cecilia M. Whitacre, an instructor of medicine at Case Western Reserve University's School of Medicine, has received a five-year, $700,000 Career Development Award from the National Cancer Institute to study a new approach for the treatment of solid cancers. This approach is aimed at enhancing the susceptibility of solid tumors to certain chemotherapeutic agents.
Despite the toxicity involved in chemotherapy, it continues to be the most common approach to treat solid tumors. A broad range of newly developed chemotherapeutic drugs are now available.
Whitacre's research focuses on members of a family of chemotherapeutic drugs named camptothecins. This drug family targets an enzyme, topoisomerase I, in the nucleus of tumor cells, inducing tumor growth delay or tumor regression. Whitacre recently reported that intercellular adhesion may confer resistance to treatment with these drugs. Her findings were published in the journal Cancer Research.
On the basis of these observations, Whitacre has developed a new strategy to block a molecule that is highly expressed in metastatic tumors and involved in cell adhesion. "The process of softening a solid tumor may enhance its sensitivity to treatment by camptothecins or topoisomerase inhibitors," she said. "The toxicity of treatment will be reduced if the experimental methods work, because less chemotherapeutic drugs will be needed."
Originally from Argentina, Whitacre joined CWRU and Nathan Berger's cancer research laboratory about five years ago. Berger is the dean of the medical school and vice president for medical affairs.
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