M. D. Anderson Cancer Center to investigate CTCE-9908 chemokine CXCR4 antagonist

Feb 21 2006

Chemokine Therapeutics has announced that it has entered into an agreement with The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center of Houston, Texas to study the Company's lead anti-cancer compound, CTCE-9908, a chemokine CXCR4 antagonist.

Oncologists at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center will study the benefits of CTCE-9908 in studies investigating the drug's ability to inhibit the metastasis of a human breast cancer in preclinical models. In previous experimental studies, CTCE-9908 has been shown to reduce cancer metastases by a considerable 50-70%.

The CXCR4 receptor is present on most human tumors cells, including lung, breast, prostate, colon, ovarian, bone, brain, and skin cancer, and has been observed to contribute to invasion of cancer to distant sites from the primary tumor, a process known as metastasis. Leading cancer researchers have demonstrated that a high level of CXCR4 expression in cancer cells is correlated to tumor progression, high metastasis rate and low patient survival rate. The Company's drug candidate CTCE-9908 targets the CXCR4 receptor and is part of a new generation of anti-cancer drug candidates that have the potential to both stop the spread of cancer (anti-metastasis) and slow the rate of cancer growth (anti-angiogenesis). Blockage of CXCR4 reduces the growth of tumors by reducing blood vessel growth (anti-angiogenesis) which carries vital nutrients to a tumor.