Robert Nagourney, MD, Comments On The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Re-Discovering Importance Of Human Tumor Primary Culture Analyses For Drug Discovery

LONG BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Robert Nagourney, MD, founder and medical director of Rational Therapeutics in Long Beach, CA, has spent the past 20 years using “functional profiling” in human tumors. Functional profiling provides real time insights that help researchers and oncologists predict how tumor cells will respond to drugs and drug combinations. With this information, drug development can be accelerated and cancer treatment effectively individualized to improve outcomes and reduce toxicity. According to Dr. Nagourney, “Ex-vivo analyses serve as a conduit that connects novel drugs and drug combinations to clinicians and patients in need. Appropriate use of these platforms has the potential to improve patient outcomes while shaving years off the drug development cycle.”

“Oncologists have a responsibility to utilize every available option in the interest of their patients and to create patient-oriented programs that provide improved clinical outcomes, while reducing the toxicities and costs associated with cancer therapy”

Now, however, in an article in the February 16, 2015 publication Cell, the Harvard affiliated Dana Farber Cancer Institute researchers describe a closely related technique to measure drug induced cell death in cell lines and human cancer cells and suggest this to be an entirely new concept.

“We applaud the investigators’ recognition of the importance of phenotypic measures in drug discovery and drug selection and agree with the points that they raise regarding the superiority of functional platforms. It’s heartening that scientists from Dana Farber should come to the same understanding of human cancer biology that many dedicated researchers had pioneered over the preceding five decades,” said Dr. Nagourney.

He added, “What is concerning is the authors’ lack of recognition of the seminal influence of previous investigators in this arena. One is left with the impression that this entire field of investigation began in 2008. It may be instructive for these researchers to read the first paper of this type in the literature published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute in 1954 by Black and Spear. They might also benefit by examining the contributions of dedicated scientists like Larry Weisenthal, Andrew Bosanquet and Ian Cree, all of whom published similar studies with similar predictive validities many years earlier.” Dr. Nagourney said that he himself has published numerous studies using cell death endpoints that improved both response and survival.

“If this paper serves to finally alert the academic community of the importance of human tumor primary culture analyses for drug discovery and individual patient drug selection, then it will have served an important purpose for a field that has been grossly underappreciated and underutilized for decades. Mankind’s earliest use of the wheel dates to Mesopotamia in 3500 BC. No one today would argue with the utility of this tool. Claiming to have invented it anew, however, is something quite different,” Dr. Nagourney said.

“Oncologists have a responsibility to utilize every available option in the interest of their patients and to create patient-oriented programs that provide improved clinical outcomes, while reducing the toxicities and costs associated with cancer therapy,” he added.

A medical oncologist, Dr. Nagourney is highly regarded in the cancer community for his pioneering work in cancer research, new treatment protocols, laboratory-directed therapy and individualized treatment. As co-principal investigator, Dr. Nagourney helped pioneer treatment programs for the Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG) that has led to widely used therapies. He now serves as principal investigator on several studies testing functional profiling in the management of advanced cancers of the lung, colon and other cancers.

Dr. Nagourney included many of these observations in 2011 as a featured speaker at TEDx where the subject of his talk was “The Future of Cancer Research Lies Behind Us.” View the speech here http://bit.ly/AtfK7m. More information about Dr. Nagourney and Rational Therapeutics is available at www.rational-t.com, on www.facebook.com/rationaltherapeutics and on twitter @RobertNagourney.