The journal Molecular Cancer Therapeutics has published an article on Lixte’s lead compound LB-100 entitled “Inhibition of protein phosphatase 2A enhances cytotoxicity and accessibility of chemotherapeutic drugs to hepatocellular carcinomas.” The article details a study showing that LB-100 increases the efficacy of two widely used anti-cancer drugs against liver cancers in model systems.

 

Performed at the Zhejiang University School of Medicine in Hangzhou, China, researchers reported that “LB-100 significantly enhanced inhibition of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) by doxorubicin and cisplatin in vitro and in vivo” and suggested that using LB-100 in combination with other drugs “may be a novel approach for enhancing the cytotoxic treatment of HCC and potentially other cancers.” 

 

John Kovach, president, Lixte Biotechnology Holdings Inc. commented on the study, “HCC is the most common cancer worldwide occurring primarily in individuals with underlying hepatitis B infection and is the third leading cause of all cancer-related deaths. While relatively uncommon in the US, the incidence of HCC appears to be increasing, most likely related to hepatitis C infection.”

 

Kovach noted, “Therapies for patients with advanced HCC have been relatively ineffective. Present standard treatment with a single drug, a protein kinase inhibitor, increases median survival of patients less than 3 months, from 7.9 months in patients receiving a placebo to 10.7 months without significant improvement in the median time to progression of symptoms due to the cancer. The Chinese investigators studied the ability of Lixte’s compound, LB-100, to increase the efficacy of cisplatin or doxorubicin in animal models of HCC. Both of these drugs have been shown to have modest clinical activity in HCC patients but have not been associated with an increase in survival, the gold standard for determining anti-cancer treatment benefit.” 

 

“The potentiation of cisplatin or doxorubicin when combined with LB-100 in animal models of HCC without a significant increase in toxicity is encouraging,” Kovach added. “The safety and toxicity of LB-100 in patients are currently under study in a Phase 1 trial in the USA. If LB-100 combined with cisplatin or doxorubicin is subsequently demonstrated to be safe in patients at concentrations which potentiate these drugs in animal models, we believe combination therapy with LB-100 will merit clinical evaluation in patients with advanced HCC, perhaps beginning with treatment of patients, who progress on standard chemotherapy.”

 

Date: June 18, 2014

Source: Lixte Biotechnology