Race Oncology Limited (ASX: RAC) reports that the final results of our collaborative preclinical research programme testing its Bisantrenechemotherapeutic agent was found to kill breast cancer cells from all common breast cancer subtypes.
The study conducted with the eminent cancer researcher, Associate Professor Nikki Verrills of The University of Newcastle and Hunter Medical Research Institute was aimed at identifying combinations of existing breast cancer drugs which when paired with Bisantrene show equivalent or better efficacy to existing treatment options, but with reduced side effects. Activity of Bisantrene alone against a range of breast cancer genetic subtypes, including those resistant to standard of care drug treatments, was also explored.
The interim results demonstrated that Bisantrene was an effective chemotherapeutic agent across a wide range of genetically distinct breast cancer subtypes. Bisantrene was able to kill some cancer subtypes that were resistant to the currently used anthracyclines doxorubicin and epirubicin. Importantly, Bisantrene showed near identical additive benefit when used in combination with cyclophosphamide to that seen with either doxorubicin or epirubicin.
Race’s, CSO, Dr Daniel Tillett, said the final results showed Bisantrene to be an effective chemotherapeutic agent across a diverse panel of genetically defined breast cancer subtypes and to also kill breast cancer cells resistant to a wide range of breast cancer treatment drugs.
The final results from Nikki’s team highlights Bisantrene’s potential use in breast cancers resistant to current treatments. Not only does Bisantrene offer a potentially safer alternative to existing chemotherapeutic drugs, it may also help patients who have exhausted other treatment options,” Dr Tillett said.
Anthracyclines agents such as doxorubicin and epirubicin are routinely combined with cyclophosphamide for the management of breast cancer. This is often followed by taxane based therapy.
Bisantrene was the subject of a large Phase III single agent clinical trial in the USA in advanced breast cancer patients in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This Phase III trial showed that Bisantrene had efficacy comparable to standard of care treatment, doxorubicin, but caused significantly less damage to the patient’s heart. Some 23% of the patients who received doxorubicin had serious heart failure compared to just 4% with Bisantrene.
Past studies have observed that Bisantrene offers a resistance profile different to other anti-cancer drugs [2], suggesting it may prove useful as a salvage agent in heavily pretreated patients as seen in late-stage metastatic breast cancer settings.
This study tested the in vitro efficacy of Bisantrene alone and Bisantrene in combination with cyclophosphamide across a range of human breast cancer cell lines covering the major molecular and clinical subtypes and spanning drug sensitive and resistant cell lines.
