Oncology

Improving the Standard of Care for Cancer Patients Receiving Radiation Treatment for Solid Tumors

The current standard of care for most solid tumors involves the use of fractionated doses of radiation combined with chemotherapeutics, often termed "chemoradiotherapy."  Today, cancer patients receive about 127 million fractions of radiation therapy as part of their treatment regimen (1,2).  As the population continues to age, cancer incidence and the use of radiation therapy is expected to increase.

Chemoradiotherapy, while a potential curative treatment for solid tumors, can be a highly toxic treatment regimen that results in adverse side effects.  Radiation can cause unintended damage to normal tissues and chemotherapeutics often create dose-limiting toxicities that can halt their use, resulting in suboptimal treatment and costly additional care.  Some side effects of this treatment can be seen immediately after treatment has started, while others take months or years to develop and many persist for years after treatment.  Potential side effects include fatigue, nausea, hair loss, pneumonitis, fibrosis, oral mucosa damage and sexual dysfunction.  Even though progress has been made to improve treatment outcomes with chemoradiotherapy, survival rates and reductions in the side effects that greatly compromise quality of life have not improved to any significant degree.

BIO 300 represents a new class of drug for cancer patients.  Its ability to protect normal tissues and not the tumor can greatly improve treatment outcomes for the millions of patients receiving radiation therapy.  BIO 300 is also being evaluated for its ability to sensitize tumor cells to radiation-induced killing,  Limiting side effects and improving tumor control with a single treatment would be unprecedented.  Importantly, BIO 300 can be added to the current standard of care, allowing physicians to use existing treatment protocols without alteration. 

Cancers most commonly treated with radiation are breast, prostate, lung, head and neck, and colorectal.

Current Programs

We have active research programs in the areas of non-small cell lung cancer, prostate cancer and head and neck cancers.