Strohman was saying this in the face of tremendous hype over gene transplantation and the development of single-gene targeted drugs like Herceptin, Erbitux, Gleevec, Iressa, that have largely been disappointing and very costly.
Of the new gene-targeted therapies, the one furthest along may be Xinlay from Abbott Laboratories.
"This is the first gene-targeted medicine in cardiovascular disease, " says Cleveland Clinic's Topol, who is helping design the trial.
Ultimately, the hope is that relatively gentle new combinations of gene-targeted drugs will be able to replace far more toxic chemotherapy regimens.
Genentech is in a particularly strong position to test new drug combinations because it has so many gene-targeted cancer drugs in its portfolio.
The company jump-started the field of gene-targeted cancer pills with Gleevec, which showed stunning successes in certain forms of leukemia and stomach cancers.
The work is significant because it goes a long way towards proving that the concept of gene-targeted therapy can work in major common tumors.
The research should also help speed the development of other gene-targeted drugs for cancer, says Haber, senior author on the New England Journal of Medicine paper and director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center.
The FDA, a full four years after the first gene-targeted cancer drug hit the market, hasn't issued guidelines for what drugmakers should do to target new treatments at the smaller circle of patients who are most likely to benefit.
His tumor had a gene mutation being targeted by a new cancer vaccine being tested by Duke neurosurgeon John Sampson.
Sangamo scientists tether to the zinc finger a protein that contains the instructions for the targeted gene: turn on, turn off, get louder, pipe down.
Use of highly targeted gene-modification tricks comes at a fortuitous time.
The research team believes if doctors can identify people who have the ATM gene fault, they can be targeted for screening and prevention.
The theory behind targeted cancer drugs is simple: find the key gene mutations driving growth of tumors and then devise drugs that block those mutated proteins.
There are hundreds of targeted cancer drugs in testing, and dozens upon dozens of possible gene mutations could have an impact on whether a drug works.
There are dozens of targeted drugs in testing, but each may work only on subsets of patients with certain gene alterations.
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