Race Oncology (ASX:RAC) has announced that a team of researchers, led by Professor Borje Andersson and Associate Professor Ben Valdez of the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas, have identified a number of clinically translatable drug combinations that showed synergy with Bisantrene when tested in Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) cells.
The company said the study, which it sponsored, has been published in the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Oncology.
It said the researchers identified that Bisantrene, when used in combination with the standard-of-care AML drugs cytarabine, cladribine, fludarabine, clofarabine and/or ABT199 (Ventoclax) showed enhanced activation of cell killing in the cancer cells.
"Combinations of three or more of these drugs with Bisantrene showed additional synergism and effective cell killing at drug concentrations far below that observed when the drugs were used on their own," said the company.
According to Race chief scientific officer, Dr Daniel Tillett, “This work provides the preclinical data to support our upcoming Phase II relapsed / refractory AML trial at the Chaim Sheba Medical Center, where patients will be treated with Bisantrene in combination with the nucleoside analogs, clofarabine and fludarabine. This trial is scheduled to begin in Q2 CY2021. We are extremely excited about being able to quickly translate this work from the lab into the clinic, where it has the potential to help AML patients in need.”