Adamis Pharmaceuticals Corporation (OTCBB: ADMP) announced today that in addition to its activity in prostate cancer, its drug APC-300 significantly inhibits the growth of pancreatic cancer cells. Pancreatic cancer still remains one of the most deadly forms of all cancers. The mortality from pancreatic cancer compares strikingly with its incidence. It has one of the worst prognoses with an overall survival rate of less than 5% and with most of the patients dying within the first two years. Recent results regarding the mechanism leading to the occurrence of pancreatic cancer suggest that in more than 90% of pancreatic cancers the Ras oncogene has been mutated. The mutation of the Ras oncoprotein has been linked to the induction of multiple signaling pathways within the cell which leads to the resistance of those cells to apoptosis (cell death) and the emergence of cancer.
In an attempt to understand how APC-300 works, Dr. Hasan Mukhtar and his team at the University of Wisconsin, have taken human pancreatic adenocarcinoma cells and investigated the effect of APC-300 on tumor cell growth and on the modulation of multiple Ras induced signaling pathways. APC-300 treatment of cancer cells was found to significantly reduce the expression of Ras oncoprotein and to modulate the protein expression of various signaling molecules involved in cancer cell growth. APC-300 attacks the cancer cells at multiple signaling pathways leading to tumor cell death and the inhibition of the growth of pancreatic cancer cells (Life Sciences, 2011 (88) pp. 285-293 and Cancer Res. 2009, 69(3) 1156-65.).
Additionally, in a mouse pancreatic cancer model, APC-300 was shown to significantly reduce the growth of tumors (p<0.01). Collectively, the data show that APC-300 induces apoptosis leading to the reduced tumorgenicity of human pancreatic cancer cells in the mouse tumor model and the killing of cancer cells in vitro. It is believed that one of the advantages of APC-300 is that it has the ability to intervene at more than one critical pathway in the pancreatic cancer cell process.
Dr. Dennis J. Carlo, Ph.D., President and CEO of Adamis states that, "Because of the known mechanisms of action of APC-300, and its ability to effect multiple signaling targets within the cancer cell, this drug will likely be active against different tumors. In fact, the data we have to date, support that to be the case."
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