Interferon For Treatment of Melanoma

Primary objective of the study was to perform a prior art search on usage of interferon for the treatment of melanoma.

To achieve our objective we performed following steps:

• Created a multi level taxonomy to categorize the patents using interferon for melanoma treatment

• Marked out relevant IPC, ECLA, US classes and Japanese F-term available for technology in question.

• Identified and clubbed relevant keywords with classes to extract relevant patents.

• Checked for patents in US, EP, PCT, JP, Great Britain, and German patent records

• Performed MPI-INPADOC search which cover bibliographic data for 71 countries and legal status for 42 countries

• Analyzed the patents and prepared an IPmap covering relevant patents for client usage.

Interferon

Interferon Source

Interferons (IFNs) are natural cell-signaling proteins produced by the cells of the immune system of most vertebrates in response to challenges such as viruses, parasites and tumor cells. They belong to the large class of glycoproteins known as cytokines and are produced by a wide variety of cells in response to the presence of double-stranded RNA, a key indicator of viral infection. Source

Interferons assist the immune response by inhibiting viral replication within host cells, activating natural killer cells and macrophages, increasing antigen presentation to T lymphocytes, and increasing the resistance of host cells to viral infection. There are 3 known classes of interferons; type I, type II and type III. All classes are very important in fighting viral infections. Recent studies have shown that Interferon can also help stop the growth and spread of cancer cells. Source

Melanoma

Melanoma is the most serious type of skin cancer. It begins in skin cells called melanocytes. Melanocytes are the cells that make melanin, which gives skin its color. Melanin also protects the deeper layers of the skin from the sun's harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays.When people spend time in the sunlight, the melanocytes make more melanin and cause the skin to tan. This also happens when skin is exposed to other forms of ultraviolet light (such as in a tanning booth). If the skin receives too much ultraviolet light, the melanocytes may begin to grow abnormally and become cancerous. This condition is called melanoma.People with melanoma who have one or more positive lymph nodes are at a high risk to have their melanoma recur. It is believed that 70 to 80% of these individuals will have their melanoma come back within the next three to five years. Source

Interferon for treatment of melanoma

Over the past several decades, the incidence of melanoma has increased at a faster rate than that of any other solid tumor. In the 1930s, the lifetime risk for a person living in the U.S. to develop melanoma was 1 in 1,500. Currently, that risk is 1 in 74, and for 2003 it was estimated that 51,400 cases of invasive melanoma would be diagnosed. While efforts to improve early diagnosis through education have resulted in the increased detection of early-stage melanoma, many patients still present with high-risk primary melanomas.

A beacon of hope in the treatment of melanoma has long been the observation that melanoma is susceptible to attack by the host’s immune system. This has resulted in the testing of a remarkably broad spectrum of immunotherapies, including the use of nonspecific immunostimulants, various approaches to vaccine therapies, and cytokine therapy. Many of these approaches failed to demonstrate a significant clinical impact, and the practitioner had been left with few options in treating high-risk melanoma patients with adjuvant therapy. One exception to this, however, has been the use of adjuvant interferon alpha (IFN-{alpha})

While the precise mechanism of action remains poorly understood, there are multiple antitumor effects of IFN-{alpha}. These include a direct antiproliferative effect, the enhancement of natural killer cell activity, and the upregulation of tumor antigens and/or HLA class I and class II antigens. Initial phase II clinical studies with IFN-{alpha} in metastatic melanoma showed response rates in the 10%–20% range [4, 5]. These response rates, while encouraging, were not significant enough to lead to its widespread use in the treatment of metastatic melanoma. Source

Taxonomy

Taxonomy

Class codes identified for searches

• Relevant IPC classes

• Relevant ECLA classes

• Relevant US classes

Search strategy and concept

Date of Search: 1836 to October 26, 2009 Database used: Micropatent - Include extensive full text and MPI-Inpadoc searches

Search in Micropatent full text - English language search

Micro patent full text search allow search in fulltext of US, EP, PCT, Great Britain, and German patent records as well as the front page of JP documents. US, EP, and DE are covered at first publication and when granted.

Search in Micropatent full text - Foreign language search

Micro patent full text search allow search in fulltext of US, EP, PCT, Great Britain, and German patent records as well as the front page of JP documents. US, EP, and DE are covered at first publication and when granted.

Search in Micropatent MPI-INPADOC - English language search

Micrpatent MPI-INPADOC search bibliographic data for 71 countries and legal status for 42. Only those patents were analyzed which have English title and/or abstract.

Search in Micropatent MPI-INPADOC - Foreign language search

Search in Japanese database

Database: IPDL (Industrial property digital library), Japan

Date of search: 1900/01/01 to 2009/10/26

Total patents: 846 (Relevancy ~10%)

• F-Terms and theme used in search