Last week saw the publication of a paper on TopoTarget ‘s Berlinostat in Pancreatic Cancer. The paper was accepted after clarification on some of the points mentioned by the reviewer –
The combination of belinostat and gemcitabine has some additive effect in vitro, yet not synergic nor significant neither confirmed by in vivo experiments.
In our study, we first described the activity of belinostat in pancreatic cancer in the preclinical setting. The primary endpoint of the study was to define if belinosat is efficient in in-vivo and in-vitro experiments at all. We showed that belinostat inhibits the growth of the tumor cellsboth in in-vitro and in-vivo experiments. Regarding an absent of synergic effect in combination with gemcitabine in the in-vivo experiments, we need to emphasize that we used very high dosages of gemcitabine that are above clinically relevant dosages. Thus we showed that high- dose gemcitabine has similar effect as normal and well tolerated dosages of belinostat. Therefore, we would regard our study as a preliminary investigation that proofed the principle effect of belinostat. Of course, further investigations are required to characterize this in detail. However, belinostat may offer a reduction of gemcitabine dosage or may even be an alternative treatment, e.g if gemcitabine is not tolerated or ineffective in the clinical setting, especially as belinostat is a well-tolerated drug with little side effects.
the highlight of accepted and finalized paper:
Experimental treatment of human PDAC cells with belinostat is effective in vitro and in vivo and may enhance the efficacy of gemcitabine. A consecutive study of belinostat in pancreatic cancer patients alone, and in combination with gemcitabine, could further clarify these effects in the clinical setting.
the whole study is available here:
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2407/12/226/abstract
