Alchemia's (ASX: ACL) subsidiary Alchemia Oncology today presented two posters at the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) 101st Annual Meeting in Washington, DC. The data demonstrates the ability of the Company's HyACT tumour targeting technology to dramatically enhance the killing of cancer stem cells. These cells are highly resistant to treatment with chemotherapeutic drugs and are believed to be responsible for treatment failure and disease recurrence.
“These data provide additional excitement around the technology as we prepare to start the pivotal Phase III study of HA-Irinotecan in colorectal cancer.”
Two posters were presented today at the 'Cancer Stem Cell Therapeutics 2' session from 2:00-5:00pm EDT in Exhibit Hall A-C entitled,
Poster #4278: HA-Irinotecan targeting of activated CD44 is an effective therapy for the eradication of putative colon cancer stem cells
Poster #4293: Evaluation of activated CD44 as a biological target in the eradication of breast cancer stem cells
In new data presented today by Professor Tracey Brown, Alchemia's Vice President of Preclinical Research, the HyACT formulation of doxorubicin (HA-Doxorubicin) has been shown to be up to forty times more potent than doxorubicin alone in killing putative breast cancer stem cells. Similarly, in human colorectal cancer cells, HyACT formulations of the drug irinotecan (HA-Irinotecan) showed up to a fifty fold increase in potency against stem cell like populations.
Despite advances in the treatment of cancer with new chemotherapeutic agents and targeted therapies, many patients develop tumours that are resistant to treatment, resulting in treatment failure. In recent years, attention has focused on the role of a sub-population of cells, referred to as 'cancer stem cells', which are highly resistant to treatment. One of the markers used to define this difficult to eradicate cell population is CD44, which is specifically targeted by Alchemia's HyACT technology.