Advertise With UsAdvertise on our extensive network of industry websites and newsletters.
Get the PBR newsletterSign up to our free email to get all the latest PBR
news.CerRx has secured worldwide exclusive rights to intellectual property and know-how related to a formulation of a vitamin A analog to treat cancer, as a single agent or in combination with partnering agents, from the John Wayne Cancer Institute at Saint John's Health Center, the National Institutes of Health and Children's Hospital Los Angeles.
Subscribe to our email newsletter
The use of a vitamin A analog called 4-HPR, or fenretinide, in combination with certain other drugs, or ‘partnering agents’, is reportedly showing promise for selectively killing certain types of cancer cells. Fenretinide works by stimulating overproduction of normal cellular waxes in cancer cells, that when produced in excess are lethal to cancer cells.
Fenretinide, either as a single agent or in combination with a partnering drug that slows degradation of the lethal waxes, appears to be therapeutic, especially in the case of recurring or relapsed malignant disease. The application would be for both adults and children, according to the John Wayne Cancer Institute.
Intravenous fenretinide emulsion is in Phase I trials for pediatric neuroblastomas and leukemia, and in adult solid tumor and blood cancers. In a Phase II study of recurrent ovarian cancer, high plasma levels of fenretinide were associated with improved outcome.