Contact: Tom Oswald, Media Communications (517) 355-2281 [email protected]
(Editors note: On April 15, three separate studies will be published in the New England Journal of Medicine detailing the very high effectiveness of the drug cisplatin in fighting cervical cancer. Specifically, studies show that combining cisplatin simultaneously with standard radiation therapy reduces a woman's risk of dying from the disease by up to 50 percent. It was in the early 1970s that Michigan State University biophysicist Barnett Rosenberg and co-workers discovered what remains the gold standard of cancer drugs.)
CISPLATIN DISCOVERER PLEASED DRUG EVEN MORE EFFECTIVE THAN THOUGHT; LAMENTS STATE OF CANCER RESEARCH
EAST LANSING, Mich. - Cisplatin has proven to be the most effective cancer drug ever discovered, a fact that both pleases and dismays Barnett Rosenberg, the retired Michigan State University professor who discovered the drug in the early 1970s.
He's "euphoric" over the life-saving capabilities of cisplatin, which soon-to-be-published research proves that when combined with radiation therapy it dramatically reduces deaths from cervical cancer. For many years it has been known to cure almost 100 percent of testicular cancers, as well as lower the rates of lung cancers, head and neck cancers, bone cancers, and early stage ovarian cancers.
On the other hand, Rosenberg notes that cisplatin, which was discovered more than 25 years ago, continues to be our most effective anti-cancer drug, a fact that speaks volumes to the state of cancer research today.
"This, in a sense, is disturbing," he said. "For years I've been saying this is the first platinum-based drug we discovered. It can't possibly be the best one. It's disappointing that the scientific community has not been able to find better ones.
"What great advances have we made in curing cancer since 1970?" he asks. "Cisplatin and its derivative, carboplatin, are the only major changes that have been produced in chemotherapy."
Rosenberg notes that other drugs have been useful in extending life, but none have had the curing capabilities of cisplatin for solid tumors.
On April 15, three separate studies will be published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Two other studies are being published in other journals. In every study, the cisplatin-radiation combination reduced death rates from cervical cancer by up to 50 percent.
"The results of the studies were so alike that I was absolutely astonished," Rosenberg said. "I've never seen such similarity in scientific results in cancer research."
The results were so astonishing that the National Cancer Institute, for only the fifth time in its history, didn't wait until the findings were published and immediately sent notices to thousands of oncologists around the world urging them to implement this treatment.
Rosenberg is hopeful that these latest findings will spark a new wave of research, especially in the area of platinum-based cancer drugs.
"This is obviously something very significant and, hopefully, just the beginning," he said. "We have a set of treatments that seem to work very well. We can now play games with it and try to improve upon it."
Cancer research is "filled with frustration," Rosenberg said, because cancer is such a formidable opponent.
"We don't understand the mechanism of what causes cancer and what to do about it," he said. "We're missing something and we don't know what, as yet."
It was in the early 1970s that Rosenberg and colleagues happened upon the cancer-fighting properties of platinum. While doing some experiments designed to determine if electromagnetic energy could stop cell growth, they found that the platinum from the electrodes, when combined with chloride and ammonium, had a dramatic effect on cells.
Several years later, 1978 to be exact, the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of this solution, now known as cisplatin, for use in humans to fight cancer.
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