A trial of geldanamycin analogue (17-AAG) for advanced cancer

The researchers found a safe dose of 17-AAG that didn’t cause too many side effects. But the cancer did not get smaller in any of the people in this trial.

• 30 people had treatment as part of this trial
• 11 people had melanoma
• The rest had other types of cancer including sarcoma , breast cancer, bowel cancer and mesothelioma.

The first few patients had a very low dose of 17-AAG. As they didn’t have any bad side effects, the next few people had a higher dose, and so on. At least 3 people safely had each dose before the dose was increased. By doing this, the researchers were able to work out the highest dose they could use without causing bad side effects.

Side effects that people did have included diarrhoea, sickness and changes to the liver.

The researchers also looked at the effect 17-AAG had on advanced cancer. In most people, they could not see a response to the drug. But in 2 people who had melanoma, the cancer stayed the same size – researchers call this stable disease . One person’s disease stayed stable for over a year and the other person still had stable disease after nearly 3 and a half years.

As 17-AAG helped these 2 people and a safe dose has been worked out, the researchers suggested it should be studied in further trials.

We have based this summary on information from the team who ran the trial. The information they sent us has been reviewed by independent specialists (peer reviewed ) and published in a medical journal. The figures we quote above were provided by the trial team. We have not analysed the data ourselves.