Tumor hypoxia exists in the majority of solid tumors and can make treatment with conventional chemotherapy and radiation less likely to succeed. PR-104 is designed to be activated in the low oxygen environment of hypoxic tumors.
Preclinical studies have demonstrated that PR-104 is not only activated, resulting in the death of the hypoxic tumor cells, but also distributes to surrounding tumor cells which are also killed. This “bystander effect” may differentiate PR-104 in targeting solid tumor hypoxia and offers the potential promise of improving current cancer treatments.
The study is being conducted at the Waikato Hospital in Hamilton, New Zealand and at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, Australia. A third, US based, site is due to be added to the trial in the coming months.
“Proacta is developing a new generation of cancer drugs that target the physiological processes of solid tumors and PR-104 represents our first step in investigating this approach to improving patient results in fighting cancer,” said Dr Paul Cossum, president and CEO of Proacta.
“Our approach specifically uses a prodrug that is designed to be activated only in the hypoxic region of the tumor, thus potentially reducing the chances of unwanted side-effects in normal tissues,” he added.