USP San Jaime specialists develop a simple analytical method for the personalization of treatment with Lapatinib, drug used in breast cancer

AACR ANNUAL MEETING

– the new analytical method was presented in a communication type poster at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research that was held recently in Chicago

-this method allows the therapeutic monitoring of the drug in a way fast, exact, precise, and most importantly, simple to implement hospital level

Torrevieja-Alicante, April of 2012.- the platform of the Hospital USP San Jaime oncology specialists have presented a new analytical method for the assessment and quantification of Lapatinib (a drug of the latest generation of the) (family of the inhibitors of Tirosin Kinasa – TKI – used in breast cancer), which allows the therapeutic drug monitoring of quickly and easily, so that facilitates its implementation at the hospital level. The DRA. Bethlehem Valenzuela, responsible for the unity of personalized pharmacotherapy of USP San Jaime, stresses that therapeutic monitoring is especially important in this group of drugs, given orally and are used in fixed-dose, and which may be excessive to some patients and not enough to other ”. Farmacoterapéutica monitoring allows to adjust doses of drugs to the patient’s needs in a personalized way.

This new analytical approach, whose novelty is that it brings the ultraviolet detection instead of mass spectrometry, has presented at the annual meeting of the AACR (American Association for Cancer Research), which was held in Chicago, and has developed hand in hand with the TEDECA Foundationan organization nonprofit integrated in the Oncology platform, which aims to provide the latest scientific and technological advances for cancer patients treated in the Oncology platform, reference Center specializing in the development and implementation of new technical diagnóstico-terapéuticas of cancer.

The DRA. Bethlehem Valenzuela, responsible for the unity of personalized pharmacotherapy of USP San Jaime, has stressed that all the analytical methodology currently contained in the scientific literature on the assessment of the concentration of Lapatinib in human plasma, provides the use of a mass spectrometer as a detection systema technology of high cost, moreover, being associated very specific training and conditions of use very delicate, which limits its implementation at the hospital level.

The analytical method developed in San Jaime uses an ultraviolet detector and analysis times are less than 15 minutes. According to the DRA. Valenzuela, is an analytical method fast and easy that it facilitates customization of the dosing of patients treated with Lapatinib ”. The customization process is also relatively simple. Once the patient receives the first dose of the drug, according to standard doses, he extracted blood samples to determine the amount of medication in the blood and the magnitude of the (therapeutic or toxic) response of the patient. Drugs in blood are determined by systems of chromatography liquid of high efficiency, with fluorescence detectors and/or ultraviolet (as it is the case of Lapatinib); ICP optical or ELISA. For its part, the magnitude of the (therapeutic or toxic) response of the patient requires both measures objective of different parameters in blood of clinical evaluations made by the medical staff of the Centre. These data as a whole can quantify the intrinsic characteristics of the patient in relation to his treatment. Thus, it is possible to determine how it is absorbed and distributed the drug in a given patient and how eliminated from his body; What is the sensitivity of the patient in relation to the development of adverse effects and what the intrinsic activity for this particular tumor … this information allows to define the optimal dose that maximizes the likelihood of achieving the desired response and decrease the risk of developing adverse effects ”, explains the DRA. Valenzuela.

The unit of Pharmacotherapy of USP San Jaime has a programme of monitoring farmacoterapéutica of inhibitors of tirosin kinase determining routinely plasma levels of six of these drugs (imatinib, erlotinib, gefitinib, sunitinib, sorafenib and lapatinib).

On the Tedeca Foundation

The USP San Jaime Oncology platform develops all its advances health care in the hands of the Tedeca Foundation, a non-profit organization created in 1999, integrated in the platform of Oncology and domiciled in the Hospital USP San Jaime (Torrevieja-Alicante). The Foundation provides the latest scientific and technological advances to cancer patients treated in the Oncology platform, reference center specialized in the development and implementation of new technical diagnóstico-terapéuticas of cancer. The Oncology platform constitutes one organizational model in Spain, in which the cancer patient and their needs is focus around which work a team of first-rate specialists.

About USP hospital

Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Madrid, USP hospital is the first hospital private group in the Spanish market. Currently, USP hospital boasts a network of 12 hospitals, 23 health centres and 4,000 doctors annually serving more than two million patients. In 2011 the company recorded 327.261 clinical stays, 125.076 surgery, 9.952 births and 506.759 er.