Funding for trial of new suite of anti-cancer drugs
Prostate and bowel cancers are the biggest causes of cancer deaths in Australia. A consortium of researchers have been awarded a $2 million grant by the Victorian Cancer Agency to start a Phase II clinical trial aimed at identifying which patients with bowel or prostate cancer respond well to a new suite of anti-cancer drugs called BET inhibitors.
The trial of 24 end stage bowel and prostate cancer patients is expected to take three years – with the aim of finding biomarker that can predict which patients (as soon as they are diagnosed) will best respond to the BET inhibitor drug regime.
Increasingly it is becoming clear that the genetic mutations that cause cancer do not necessarily occur early in life. In fact genetic mutations can occur throughout life and, in cancer, can occur at any stage, caused by a range of triggers from environmental, viral, and chemical causes.
Prostate cancer in particular appears to undergo a lot of genetic changes quite late in its development, according to Professor Gail Risbridger, from the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute (BDI) and a member of the team.
The consortium will use the VCA grant to investigate a class of drugs – called BET inhibitors, which target the actual DNA of the tumour cells – that has been shown to be successful in targeting cancer cells that have undergone these epigenetic changes.
The collaborative research project builds on the previous work of co-lead investigator and Hudson Institute’s Associate Professor Ron Firestein who identified the RNA biomarker and potential benefit of BET inhibitors in pre-clinical models in his previous laboratory at Genetech Inc.
Associate Professor Helen Abud, also a member of the team and from the BDI, is conducting pre-clinical studies on human bowel cancer organoids isolated directly from patients in collaboration with Associate Professor Paul McMurrick from Cabrini Hospital. Tumours responsive to BET inhibitors will be detected and tested for the presence of biomarkers. Professor Risbridger is conducting similar pre-clinical studies using prostate cancer explants. These organoid and explant studies will identify which patients are likely to respond best to this new therapy and confirm the accuracy of the biomarkers.
Having identified these markers the research team, led by Dr Arun Azad, from the Monash Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, will conduct a three year trial that biopsies patients to see whether they have markers associated with BET inhibitor responsiveness and then to follow these patients as they receive the treatment.
As data is collected from the patients who do and do not respond to the BET inhibitor therapy, the researchers will be able to look at the original biopsies to find markers that can predict the patients who are “good responders”.
The Phase II trial is expected to begin within twelve months on twenty four patients with Stage IV malignancy. The researchers expect to have a suite of markers associated with responders and non-responders to BET inhibitors within 24 months.
Committed to making the discoveries that will relieve the future burden of disease, the newly established Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute at Monash University brings together more than 100 internationally-renowned research teams. Our researchers are supported by world-class technology and infrastructure and partner with industry, clinicians and researchers internationally to enhance lives through discovery.