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| |  FDA Approves Stehlin Foundation for New Anti-Cancer Drug HOUSTON, Sept. 30, 1996 -- The Food and Drug Administration has granted the Stehlin Foundation for Cancer Research at St. Joseph Hospital exclusive rights to a promising anti-cancer drug for pancreatic cancer. For the past seven years, the Stehlin Foundation has been experimenting with the cancer-fighting drug, Camptothecin, and its derivatives. Of these derivatives, 9-Nitro Camptothecin, (9NC), has shown impressive results with pancreatic cancer. "Until now, there has not been even one drug that was an effective treatment for pancreatic cancer," said John S. Stehlin, Jr., M.D., who founded The Stehlin Foundation for cancer research in 1969. "FDA approval is an important endorsement of our work." Researchers say 9NC brings new hope to patients suffering from one of the deadliest forms of cancer. Currently, 90 percent of patients with inoperable pancreatic cancer die within in a few months of diagnosis. Pancreatic cancer recently gained wider public attention when entertainer Juliet Prowse succumbed to the disease. Dr. Stehlin said The Stehlin Foundation in Houston would like to hear from patients diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer. "We want them to contact us to see if they can become part of this second phase of testing," Stehlin said. "Although it costs us about $10,000 for each patient's course of treatment with 9NC, the patient is charged nothing." Physicians or patients interested in 9NC treatment for pancreatic cancer should contact The Stehlin Foundation for Cancer Research at St. Joseph Hospital in Houston, at 713/659-1336. While it may mean the difference between life and death for thousands of people suffering from pancreatic cancer, 9NC also improves quality of life for patients during treatment. The drug is a natural compound derived from Camptotheca tree, and has fewer debilitating side effects than many traditional anti-cancer drugs. Because 9NC is given in capsule form, patients do not have to undergo expensive hospitalization. "We look to Camptothecin derivatives to one day become 'the poor man's cancer treatment'," Dr. Stehlin said. "The patient can take this medication at home, and avoid the inconvenience of having to receive drugs intravenously at the hospital. For patients, this treatment is less disruptive of daily life than most forms of chemotherapy." The Stehlin Foundation applied to the FDA for orphan drug status for 9NC in July, and the request was granted this month. The Stehlin Foundation will have exclusive rights for seven years to market 9NC in the United States for the treatment of pancreatic cancer, from the time the FDA approves it. "We want people with pancreatic cancer to know there is encouraging news," Dr. Stehlin said. "Hope is an important weapon in fighting cancer and this is the most hopeful development I have seen in 30 years." The Stehlin Foundation for Cancer Research at St. Joseph Hospital in Houston, was founded in 1969 by surgical oncologist Dr. John S. Stehlin, Jr. The Stehlin Foundation research laboratory has the largest number of human tumors in storage in the world, and supplies approximately 75% of the human tumors used by the National Cancer Institute in their testing with nude mice. The Stehlin Foundation pioneered the use of nude mice in cancer research, establishing a correlation between an anti-cancer drug's effectiveness on a human tumor implanted in a mouse and the drug's effectiveness on the human patient 85% of the time.
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