Noxopharm (ASX:NOX) has announced what it describes as encouraging new preclinical data from its long-term collaboration with UNSW Sydney.
The results were reported this week at the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) Special Conference on Pancreatic Cancer taking place in Boston, as a poster and video presentation.
The study involves Noxopharm’s novel preclinical drug that attacks pancreatic cancer.
Pancreatic cancer is considered difficult to treat because the tumours are surrounded by a dense barrier of cells that protects them from anti-cancer drugs, as well as from the body’s immune system. These barrier cells also help the cancer spread to the rest of the body, adding to the challenge of developing treatments.
Noxopharm said it has conducted an 18-month study as part of an ongoing collaboration with UNSW to test CRO-67.
It said the major findings were that CRO-67 killed tumour cells as well as barrier cells in samples taken from six patients who had their tumours surgically removed.
Patient samples were treated with CRO-67 at doses of 10, 20 and 50 micrograms per millilitre and a dose-response relationship was found, such that greater amounts of drug resulted in highly statistically significant effects.
