Investigational therapies for
patients with cancer are underway
at the Cancer Research Institute
(CRI) at Baylor Scott & White
Health - Central Texas
Two medicines are being studied in the hope of sparing cancer patients the
harsh side effects of traditional chemotherapy. Both therapies are in the
early stages of study and could ultimately benefit patients with colorectal
cancer and acute myeloid leukemia.
ung-Hee Woo, PhD, is
director of the Temple-based
CRI. He explains that each
drug is being advanced as targeted
therapies that attack a particular
molecular makeup in these patients,
attacking cancer cells while sparing
normal tissue. This is different from
traditional chemotherapy. “Standard
chemotherapy is fairly toxic to all
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rapidly dividing tumor cells as well
as normal cells,” says Dr. Woo.
“That’s why patients treated with
chemotherapy have a lot of side effects,
such as nausea and hair loss.”
Colorectal cancer
The medicine under investigation at
the CRI targets blood vessel tumors that
are associated with colorectal cancer,
a disease diagnosed in approximately
132,000 new patients each year in
the United States; these tumors feed
upon new blood vessels for oxygen
and nutrition. Because these cancer
cells are near the bloodstream they can
spread easily through the body. The
tumor blood vessels carry a protein
molecule called TEM8, which is also
found in breast cancer tumors. CRI
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