Ewing sarcoma is a cancer of bone or soft tissue that primarily affects children and young adults. It is very treatable when caught early but usually fatal once it has progressed to metastatic disease. Effective treatments for metastatic disease have remained elusive.

David Loeb, M.D., Ph.D., has received a $600,000 grant from the V Foundation for Cancer Research to conduct pre-clinical studies to determine whether the drug difluoromethylornithine (DFMO) is useful against Ewing sarcoma. DFMO is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat African Sleeping Sickness; in preliminary animal experiments, Dr. Loeb and colleagues have found that DFMO can inhibit Ewing sarcoma metastasis. Using a mouse model of Ewing sarcoma, the researches will assess whether DFMO combined with chemotherapy works better than chemotherapy alone in prolonging the animals’ lives. The results could lead to clinical trials to test the effectiveness of adding DFMO to standard chemotherapy regimens. Dr. Loeb has also received a $100,000 grant from the National Pediatric Cancer Foundation to evaluate DFMO in mouse models of osteosarcoma.

Dr. Loeb is professor of pediatrics and of developmental and molecular biology at Einstein and chief of pediatric hematology/oncology at Einstein and Montefiore.