Applied Integrin Sciences' drug candidate eliminates ovarian cancer tumors in pre-clinical study

Sep 21 2013

Applied Integrin Sciences, Inc. announced today that its first cancer therapeutic drug candidate eliminated all intraperitoneal ovarian cancer tumors in a pre-clinical study testing a novel treatment regimen. Funded by the National Cancer Institute through the company's first NCI grant awarded December last year, its lead candidate drug Vicrostatin was combined with a drug-eluting gel and applied into the peritoneum for sustained release of the drug directly to ovarian cancer metastatic tumors. 

"The results our scientists achieved are exceptional", said Thomas C. Chen, MD, Ph.D., the company's Chief Medical Officer, "and suggest an equivalent human treatment for ovarian cancer patients is feasible.  The implications for this treatment are equally compelling as 75% of women first diagnosed with ovarian cancer have stage III or stage IV metastatic disease and 80% of those women fail to survive longer than 20 months post diagnosis. This approach is early but if we are able to achieve comparable results in human clinical trials with women suffering from ovarian cancer this treatment could considerably change the current standard of care."

The company's two drug candidates previously demonstrated substantial reduced tumor growth and progression in pre-clinical testing against six aggressive cancers: triple negative breast cancer; primary prostate cancer; prostate bone metastasis; ovarian cancer; melanoma; and glioblastoma.  Both drug candidates, Vicrostatin and ADM-01, are recombinant proteins discovered by the company's founding scientists at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine and Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center.  Each uniquely targets specific cell surface receptors that are activated only in actively growing cancer cells and when metastatic cells and cells producing new tumor vasculature are actively motile.  These cancer growth and progression processes are necessary for cancers to seed new metastatic tumors throughout the body and to produce the blood vasculature that is required for tumors to grow and cause death. 

The cancer fighting mechanisms of the company's two drug candidates are very unique and suggest better efficacy, improved safety, and longer sustained therapeutic effects than current cancer drugs.  The company plans to complete pre-clinical development of its lead candidate and file an Investigational New Drug application with the FDA to begin human clinical trials with funds it receives from its next round of financing.