Article on DARA Peripheral Neuropathy DrugFrom News-Medical.net:
New experimental drug can help treat peripheral neuropathy in cancer patients
Published on April 11, 2011 at 5:00 AM
Although oncologists have made great strides in many aspects of cancertreatment, one area that has remained very difficult to treat isperipheral neuropathy, namely pain that can be caused by the cancer orby its treatment. In these cases patients suffer from feelings ofnumbness, tingling, cramping, aching or burning, even stabbing pain,often in the hands and feet. A number of widely used chemotherapeuticagents can cause peripheral neuropathy, even as they help to treat thepatient's malignancy.
Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy (CIPN)
Cancer doctors and palliative care specialists try many medications andremedies to relieve the painful neuropathy caused by chemotherapy, butuntil now there have been few treatments that specifically andeffectively target neuropathic pain. DARA Biosciences of Raleigh, NC hasa new drug in development, KRN5500, which looks promising foralleviating CIPN, based on early phase 2 trial results. NCI and DARABiosciences will soon be initiating one or more joint studies of thedrug in patients with CIPN.
According to Amy P. Abernethy, M.D. an oncologist who has beenresearching KRN5500, "One of the problems is that our usual painmedicines don't work very well for CIPN. The opioids and othermedications that would be the standard therapy we would use for peoplewho have moderate to severe cancer pain are of limited help for peoplewith neuropathic pain, and especially chemotherapy-induced peripheralneuropathy. So what we end up doing is stacking up several differentkinds of medicines that are sometimes incrementally helpful, but inaggregate generally come with many additional side effects. It's hard toguess which are going to be the most useful. Sometimes a patient'sworsening CIPN is a reason for changing the chemotherapy program fromthe preferred treatment plan to something else."