Researchers at Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc. and the University of California at San Diego have reported on a STAT3-targeting antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) that "produced robust antisense-mediated inhibition of target RNA molecules in tumors of several preclinical models, and demonstrated single-agent antitumor activity in several highly refractory cancer patients in a phase I dose-escalation study," corresponding author Robert MacLeod told BioWorld Today.

To skeptics, looking for cancer drugs by screening cell lines is the equivalent of searching for your lost wallet under a street lamp. The types of cells that can be cultured, the argument goes, are different in critical ways from those that can't, and any knowledge gleaned from them is likely to lead drug developers down a primrose path that ends in clinical failure.

Dysphonia, or voice problems, is a disorder that gets little attention in the public imagination. Loss of speech is not life-threatening. And because it is often a consequence of other health issues such as cancer that are life-threatening, those other issues are what get the attention.

Treatment with an antibody that is the mouse equivalent of bapineuzumab (Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. / Pfizer Inc.) not only failed to reduce the neuronal hyperactivity that is a physiological feature of Alzheimer's disease (AD), but actually worsened it.

Even though it is sponsored by three organizations, the joint Molecular Targets meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, the National Cancer Institute, and the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (AACR-NCI-EORTC) is smaller than the annual meetings of the big organizations – including that of AACR itself.

BOSTON — The Molecular Targets meeting, a joint endeavor of the American Association for Cancer Research, the National Cancer Institute, and the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (AACR-NCI-EORTC), wrapped up a lively four days on Monday with a discussion of "the in vitro patient."