CSH Lab IDs liver cancer gene

Scientists say they have identified the gene that drives the growth of liver cancer, and a way to shut it down.

Cancer investigators at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory reported Monday that the discoveries may open a new window on treatment for one of the deadliest malignancies.

Working with a team of researchers at laboratories elsewhere in the country, Dr. Scott Powers and colleagues at Cold Spring Harbor's Human Cancer Genome Center found that a single gene switches on to drive up to 15 percent of cancers that start in the liver, a form of the disease known as primary liver cancer.

"When we say primary liver cancer, that means it is not like colon cancer that [spreads] to the liver. In this case, we mean it's the cell of origin," he said.

Primary liver cancer is one of the deadliest cancers known because it is difficult to treat and has one of the worst one-year survival rates of any cancer.

The new research, published Monday in the journal Cancer Cell, shows a gene dubbed FGF-19 switches on in 15 percent of primary liver cancers, causing healthy cells to rapidly transform into malignant ones. Powers and his team discovered, however, that when they apply an experimental antibody, the gene's activity is halted. This antibody -- a protein with strong anti-cancer properties -- was developed by pharmaceutical giant Genentech.

Powers said the antibody works almost identically against the liver-cancer gene as the drug Herceptin acts against the HER-2/neu gene, which is prevalent in 30 percent of breast cancers versus 7.9 months for patients on standard therapy.

Herceptin, another anti-cancer antibody, also is produced by Genentech.

When the HER-2/neu gene is found, doctors automatically know the patient has an especially aggressive form of breast cancer. All breast-cancer patients are routinely tested for the gene’s presence. Herceptin has helped change the course of breast-cancer treatment by providing an option for a form of the disease that once was inevitably fatal. Herceptin was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1998.

Human tests have not yet been conducted with the experimental antibody.

“Primary liver cancer occurs in people who have had underlying liver disease, such as hepatitis B and hepatitis C,” said Dr. Bhoomi Mehrotra, who heads the medical oncology and stem cell transplantation division at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park.

“Any new treatment under development is obviously going to be welcomed because what we have to offer now is not satisfactory enough, and it’s still a challenge to put the cancer in remission,” Mehrotra said.

The most recent drug to join the stable of therapies against primary liver cancer is Nexavar, Mehrotra said, which was approved by the FDA in 2005. A study of 600 patients two years ago showed a survival of 10.7 months after being diagnosed and treated with the drug versus 7.9 months for patients on standard therapy.