August 2, 2023 – A promising recent oral cancer treatment has been shown to selectively destroy cancer cells while leaving healthy cells unharmed.
The drug has only been tested on animals and in laboratory experiments, but doesn’t appear to have any unwanted side effects. It works by interrupting the reproductive cycle of cancer cells. In addition to the “catastrophic” damage to cancer cells, the experimental drug showed, in accordance with Results published this week within the magazine Cell chemical biology.
So far, the drug's safety has been studied in mice and dogs. In this latest study, its effect on cancer cells was tested in mice whose tumors originated from breast cancer, small cell lung cancer and a variety of cancer called neuroblastoma, which starts in nerve cells. In total, the researchers examined the drug's effect on 70 kinds of cancer.
“We recognize that positive results from animal studies do not always indicate successful treatment in cancer patients,” wrote the authors, who were led by a team at California's City of Hope Cancer Center. “Future clinical trials are needed to determine efficacy in cancer treatment.”
A Phase I clinical trial in People is ongoing. Phase I trials are studying dosing and unwanted side effects. This phase is predicted to last 2 years, and the primary pill of the drug, called AOH1996, was given to a patient in October 2022 as a part of the trial. AOH1996 has been in development for two a long time and is called after a 9-year-old girl named Anna Olivia Healey who died from neuroblastoma.
