Abstract
A variety of pre-clinical and clinical data point toward high drug levels of retinoids being required to achieve optimal efficacy against neuroblastoma. The results of the Kohler trial reported in this issue demonstrate that low-dose 13-cis-RA does not have clinical efficacy against neuroblastoma in a setting of minimal residual disease. A comparison of the Kohler trial with the US CCG trial provides clinical evidence that high-dose levels of retinoids are optimal for treating minimal residual disease in neuroblastoma. The comparison of high-dose and low-dose 13-cis-RA studies in neuroblastoma suggests the intriguing possibility that high dose, pulse schedules of other retinoids could be effective as therapeutic and chemopreventive agents in diseases where low-dose, chronic retinoid administration was not effective. Pre-clinical and perhaps clinical studies of the latter concept should be considered. © 2000 Cancer Research Campaign
Article PDF
Change history
16 November 2011
This paper was modified 12 months after initial publication to switch to Creative Commons licence terms, as noted at publication
References
Abemayor E (1992) The effects of retinoic acid on the in vitro and in vivo growth of neuroblastoma cells. Laryngoscope 102: 1133–1149
Basniewski PG, Reid JM, Villablanca JG, Reynolds CP and Ames MM (1999) A phase I pharmacokinetic study of fenretinide (HPR) in chldren with high-risk solid tumors. A Children’s Cancer Group (CCG) study. Proc Am Assoc Cancer Res 40: 92
Cobleigh MA, Dowlatshahi K, Deutsch TA, Mehta RG, Moon RC, Minn F, Benson ABd, Rademaker AW, Ashenhurst JB and Wade JLdet al (1993) Phase I/II trial of tamoxifen with or without fenretinide, an analog of vitamin A, in women with metastatic breast cancer. J Clin Oncol 11: 474–477
Costa A, De Palo G, Decensi A, Formelli F, Chiesa F, Nava M, Camerini T, Marubini E and Veronesi U (1995) Retinoids in cancer chemoprevention. Clinical trials with the synthetic analogue fenretinide. Ann NY Acad Sci 768: 148–162
Decensi A, Fontana V, Fioretto M, Rondanina G, Torrisi R, Orengo MA and Costa A (1997) Long-term effects of fenretinide on retinal function. Eur J Cancer 33: 80–84
Delia D, Aiello A, Lombardi L, Pelicci PG, Grignani F, Grignani F, Formelli F, Menard S, Costa A and Veronesi Uet al (1993) N-(4-hydroxyphenyl)retinamide induces apoptosis of malignant hemopoietic cell lines including those unresponsive to retinoic acid. Cancer Res 53: 6036–6041
Di Vinci A, Geido E, Infusini E and Giaretti W (1994) Neuroblastoma cell apoptosis induced by the synthetic retinoid N-(4-hydroxyphenyl)retinamide. Int J Cancer 59: 422–426
Finklestein JZ, Krailo MD, Lenarsky C, Ladisch S, Blair GK, Reynolds CP, Sitarz AL and Hammond GD (1992) 13-cis-retinoic acid (NSC 122758) in the treatment of children with metastatic neuroblastoma unresponsive to conventional chemotherapy: report from the Childrens Cancer Study Group. Med Pediatr Oncol 20: 307–311
Formelli F, Clerici M, Campa T, Di Mauro MG, Magni A, Mascotti G, Moglia D, De Palo G, Costa A and Veronesi U (1993) Five-year administration of fenretinide: pharmacokinetics and effects on plasma retinol concentrations. J Clin Oncol 11: 2036–2042
Kazmi SM, Plante RK, Visconti V and Lau CY (1996) Comparison of N-(4-hydroxyphenyl)retinamide and all-trans-retinoic acid in the regulation of retinoid receptor-mediated gene expression in human breast cancer cell lines. Cancer Res 56: 1056–1062
Keshelava N, Seeger RC, Groshen S and Reynolds CP (1998) Drug resistance patterns in human neuroblastoma cell lines derived from patients at different phases of therapy. Cancer Res 58: 5396–5405
Mariotti A, Marcora E, Bunone G, Costa A, Veronesi U, Pierotti MA and Della Valle G (1994) N-(4-hydroxyphenyl)retinamide: a potent inducer of apoptosis in human neuroblastoma cells. J Natl Cancer Inst 86: 1245–1247
Matthay KK, Atkinson JB, Stram DO, Selch M, Reynolds CP and Seeger RC (1993) Patterns of relapse after autologous purged bone marrow transplantation for neuroblastoma: a Childrens Cancer Group pilot study. J Clin Oncol 11: 2226–2233
Matthay KK, Villablanca JG, Seeger RC, Stram DO, Harris RE, Ramsay NK, Swift P, Shimada H, Black CT, Brodeur GM, Gerbing RB and Reynolds CP (1999) Treatment of high-risk neuroblastoma with intensive chemotherapy, radiotherapy, autologous bone marrow transplantation, and 13-cis-retinoic acid. Children’s Cancer Group. N Engl J Med 341: 1165–1173
Maurer BJ, Metelitsa LS, Seeger RC, Cabot MC and Reynolds CP (1999) Increase of ceramide and induction of mixed apoptosis/necrosis by N-(4-hydroxyphenyl)- retinamide in neuroblastoma cell lines [see comments]. J Natl Cancer Inst 91: 1138–1146
Maurer BJ, Cabot MC and Reynolds CP (2000) Modulators of ceramide metabolism syngergize fenretinide cytotoxicity in multiple tumor cell types. Proc Amer Assoc Cancer Res 41: 239
Melino G, Thiele CJ, Knight RA and Piacentini M (1997) Retinoids and the control of growth/death decisions in human neuroblastoma cell lines. J Neurooncol 31: 65–83
Ponzoni M, Bocca P, Chiesa V, Decensi A, Pistoia V, Raffaghello L, Rozzo C and Montaldo PG (1995) Differential effects of N-(4-hydroxyphenyl)retinamide and retinoic acid on neuroblastoma cells: apoptosis versus differentiation. Cancer Res 55: 853–861
Reynolds CP and Lie S (2000) Retinoid therapy of neuroblastoma. In Neuroblastoma, Brodeur GM, ST, Tsuchida Y, Voute PA (ed) pp. 519–540. Elseviere Science: Amsterdam
Reynolds CP, Kane DJ, Einhorn PA, Matthay KK, Crouse VL, Wilbur JR, Shurin SB and Seeger RC (1991) Response of neuroblastoma to retinoic acid in vitro and in vivo. Prog Clin Biol Res 366: 203–211
Reynolds CP, Schindler PF, Jones DM, Gentile JL, Proffitt RT and Einhorn PA (1994) Comparison of 13-cis-retinoic acid to trans-retinoic acid using human neuroblastoma cell lines. Prog Clin Biol Res 385: 237–244
Reynolds CP, Melton LJ and Wang W (1997) N-(4-hydroxyphenyl-retinamide is highly active against retinoic acid resistant neuroblastoma cell lines. Proc Am Assoc Cancer Res 38: 25
Sheikh MS, Shao ZM, Li XS, Ordonez JV, Conley BA, Wu S, Dawson MI, Han QX, Chao WR and Quick T (1995) N-(4-hydroxyphenyl)retinamide (4-HPR)-mediated biological actions involve retinoid receptor-independent pathways in human breast carcinoma. Carcinogenesis 16: 2477–2486
Sidell N (1982) Retinoic acid induced growth inhibition and morphologic differentiation of human neuroblastoma cells in vitro. J Natl Cancer Inst 68: 589–593
Sidell N, Sarafian T, Kelly M, Tsuchida T and Haussler M (1986) Retinoic acid-induced differentiation of human neuroblastoma: a cell variant system showing two distinct responses. Exp Cell Biol 54: 287–300
Smith MA, Parkinson DR, Cheson BD and Friedman MA (1992) Retinoids in cancer therapy. J Clin Oncol 10: 839–864
Supino R, Crosti M, Clerici M, Warlters A, Cleris L, Zunino F and Formelli F (1996) Induction of apoptosis by fenretinide (4HPR) in human ovarian carcinoma cells and its association with retinoic acid receptor expression. Int J Cancer 65: 491–497
Thiele CJ, Reynolds CP and Israel MA (1985) Decreased expression of N-myc precedes retinoic acid-induced morphological differentiation of human neuroblastoma. Nature 313: 404–406
Villablanca JG, Khan AA, Avramis VI, Seeger RC, Matthay KK, Ramsay NK and Reynolds CP (1995) Phase I trial of 13-cis-retinoic acid in children with neuroblastoma following bone marrow transplantation. J Clin Oncol 13: 894–901
Ziv Y, Gupta MK, Milsom JW, Vladisavljevic A, Brand M and Fazio VW (1994) The effect of tamoxifen and fenretinide on human colorectal cancer cell lines in vitro. Anticancer Res 14: 2005–2009
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
From twelve months after its original publication, this work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
About this article
Cite this article
Matthay, K., Reynolds, C. Is there a role for retinoids to treat minimal residual disease in neuroblastoma?. Br J Cancer 83, 1121–1123 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1054/bjoc.2000.1430
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1054/bjoc.2000.1430
This article is cited by
-
Pharmacokinetics and pharmacogenetics of 13-cis retinoic acid in Indian high-risk neuroblastoma patients
Cancer Chemotherapy and Pharmacology (2016)
-
Pharmacokinetics and metabolism of 13-cis-retinoic acid (isotretinoin) in children with high-risk neuroblastoma – a study of the United Kingdom Children's Cancer Study Group
British Journal of Cancer (2007)
-
Neuroblastoma
Clinical and Translational Oncology (2005)