A City of Hope-developed investigational cancer medicine developed by Linda Malkas, Ph.D., professor in City of Hope’s Department of Molecular Diagnostics & Experimental Therapeutics, is in Phase 1 clinical trials. Credit: City of Hope
Key Points:
- The first patient to receive the novel AOH1996 cancer medication as part of a Phase I clinical trial is doing well.
- The pill is a less toxic cancer therapy that targets mutated cancer cells while leaving normal cells alone.
- In preclinical trials, the treatment showed success on a broad range of human cancer cells, including breast, prostate, brain, ovarian, cervical, skin and lung.
The first patient to receive the novel AOH1996 cancer medication as part of a Phase I clinical trial is doing well, according to medication developers City of Hope, one of the largest cancer research and treatment organizations in the United States.
The pill’s creator, Linda Malkas, professor in City of Hope’s Department of Molecular Diagnostics & Experimental Therapeutics, focused on cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), which plays an essential role in the replication and repair of cells. She thought proliferating PCNA would be a less toxic cancer therapy that targets mutated cancer cells while leaving normal cells alone.
The treatment has been shown in preclinical research to do just that—target PCNA and inhibit the growth and spread of a broad range of human cancer cells, including breast, prostate, brain, ovarian, cervical, skin and lung. The research protocol notes that AOH1996 is not toxic to healthy cells and that treatment with this medicine both pauses cell DNA synthesis and inhibits DNA repair, leading to apoptosis in cancer cells.
The Phase 1 clinical trial is open at City of Hope Los Angeles. Its objective is to determine the maximum tolerated dose of the investigational pill, AOH1996, and to evaluate the medicine for preliminary efficacy. Eligible patients include adults with solid tumors who have not found standard treatments effective. Participating patients will be asked to take the medication in pill form twice a day.
“Since many patients’ cancers become resistant to our standard therapies, we need new therapeutics with new mechanisms of action—for example, non-cross resistant. AOH1996 is just that kind of new therapy,” said Daniel Von Hoff, M.D., of the Molecular Medicine Division at the Translational Genomics Research Institute, part of City of Hope.
Malkas said other targeted therapies, like checkpoint inhibitors, that inhibit the growth and spread of cancer have helped innumerable cancer patients, adding that perhaps one day AOH1996 will be a U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved inhibitor that could be used in combination with existing therapies to both enhance cancer-killing effects as well as decrease side effects related to lifesaving cancer treatments.
Information provided by City of Hope.