Director of the The Kids Cancer Centre, Professor Terry Johns
Children with aggressive brain cancers could soon have access to a significant new treatment option, using a unique antibody that stops cancer cells from repairing themselves.
The Kids Research Institute Australia researchers have been awarded a generous grant from Cure Brain Cancer Foundation to partner with Australian therapeutic company Patrys Limited to undertake the necessary laboratory work to develop the antibody into a clinical trial by 2023.
The antibody works by targeting the DNA in cancer cells that have been damaged by radiotherapy and chemotherapy to then switch off the cells’ ability to repair themselves, causing the cancer cells to die.
It is hoped this will not only improve the effectiveness of the radiotherapy and chemotherapy but allow them to be given in much smaller doses.
Director of the The Kids Cancer Centre, Professor Terry Johns, said it was a crucial step forward for brain cancer patients, who have seen very few new treatments in the last three decades.
“Brain cancer remains a highly lethal disease and we believe that this is an excellent way we can help current treatment be more effective, extending lives,” he said.
This is a good antibody for a range of cancers – obviously my focus is brain cancer – but it can be taken into other cancers in children and even into adults.
Professor Johns said he expected the research to progress to a clinical trial stage as early as next year.
“We are getting ready to take this antibody into the clinic in 2023,” he said.
“We want to know the best way to use it in brain cancer patients, and we want to test it in our laboratory models in combination with radiotherapy.”
Funding for the project comes from Professor Johns who is the inaugural recipient of the Cure Brain Cancer Foundation’s Clinical Accelerator program.
CEO of Cure Brain Cancer Foundation, Lance Kawaguchi, said this is a strong move towards the goal of improving the quality of life for people living with the disease.
“Cure Brain Cancer Foundation is humbled to award our very first Clinical Accelerator to Prof Terry Johns from the The Kids Cancer Centre in conjunction with leading Australian biotechnology company Patrys to continue our shared goal of improving treatments for people, especially children, living with brain cancer,” he said.
To have a ground-breaking antibody that can potentially be in clinic by 2023 is life changing, and we are committed to drive research breakthroughs with rapid results.
The Kids Cancer Centre is working to developing new, less toxic treatments for children with all cancers, to avoid the devastating side-effects that chemotherapy and radiotherapy have on their little bodies.
Professor Johns said it is hoped this antibody treatment would allow a lower dose of radiotherapy to be given.
“The main way we want to use this antibody in brain cancer patients is to improve radiotherapy,” he said.
“We believe it will improve current treatment, which is fairly ineffective for brain cancer patients, and help these patients to live longer.
“The other advantage of this antibody is that it could reduce the dose of radiotherapy needed and in children in particular that radiotherapy causes a lot of side effects, and it’s also damaging for adults as well.”