Ovarian cancer, the cancer that causes more deaths than any other of the female reproductive system, may be effectively treated with Introgen Therapeutics Inc's INGN 241 therapy as suggested in preclinical research presented during the 94th annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). INGN 241, Introgen's mda-7 based cancer therapy, is also undergoing phase 1 and phase 2 clinical testing for multiple tumor types.

Introgen and its collaborators have demonstrated and reported that in a variety of preclinical models INGN 241 is effective in lung, prostate, breast, brain, colorectal and melanoma cancers.

Dr. James Merritt, Introgen's chief medical officer said, "The broad range of activity we are seeing in preclinical models of INGN 241 is extremely encouraging and suggests significant potential for this product in numerous types of cancer."

Scientists at Introgen and M. D. Anderson Cancer Center looked at the anti-tumor activity of INGN 241 and the methods by which ovarian cancer cells were killed, (Abstract 1688). INGN 241 treated cells express high levels of MDA-7 protein, which significantly suppressed the growth of the ovarian cancer cells, as well as induced the death of the cells. Importantly, normal cells were not harmed. Ad-mda7 treatment induced high levels of apoptosis (cell death) only in ovarian cancer cells, but not normal cells. Molecules involved in cell death pathways were induced by the drug in tumor cells, but not normal cells.

The mda-7 gene was discovered by the laboratory of Dr. Paul B. Fisher, professor of clinical pathology and the Michael and Stella Chernow Urological Cancer Research Scientist in the Departments of Neurological Surgery, Pathology and Urology at Columbia University. Introgen holds an exclusive worldwide license to the mda-7 gene from the Corixa Corporation.