Dr. Weeks’ Comment: For the past decade, scientists have know full well that cancer STEM cells, and not cancer TUMOR cells, are the real lethal cancer cell which needs to be targeted in order to reverse cancer process and save lives. I have lectured on that topic in Japan, Germany, Canada, England and across America. Change has been slow in coming because conventional cancer care is profitable. More specifically, oncologists have had no patented profitable weapons with which to target cancer STEM cells, so they continued to urge paying customers (i.e. dying and trusting patients) to allow oncologists to “slash, burn and poison” (i.e surgery, radiation and chemotherapy) the relatively harmless cancer TUMOR cells – despite the fact that standard of care (slash burn and poison) does NOT kill cancer STEM cells.
To give you a clearer picture, here is an example. Imagine America is being attacked from the north. Our first thought is that Canada is attacking us, so we start counter attacking Canada but the attack from the north continues unabated. Hmmm…. After a while, some smart military intelligence officer clarifies that although the attack is indeed coming from the north, it is actually NOT coming from Canada but from Russia which is launching missiles which fly over Canada towards the USA. Hmmm.. What does the US military do now when it realizes we have been targeting the wrong entity? Well, we should counter-attack Russia, but for the purposes of this example, let’s imagine that we don’t have missiles that can reach Russia. (e.g. we don’t have drugs that can kill cancer STEM cells). In that case, the US army decides to continue bombing Canada. (e.g. continue killing the innocent, relatively harmless cancer TUMOR cells). Seems nonsensical? It is. And so is continuing to use chemo and radiation to kill cancer TUMOR cells because they are not the appropriate target and to make things worse, in the words of Prof. Max Wicha, M.D. “chemo therapy and radiation make your cancer worse”. By continuing to bomb innocent and relatively harmless Canada, we just make things worse. This tragedy (using chemotherapy and radiation which only make your cancer worse) which many consider to be tantamount to criminal activity will continue until profitable drugs for cancer STEM cells are developed. Finally, we have some progress on that front. A new generation of drugs designed to kill cancer STEM cells is in the pipeline. This is just beginning and here we read about Cantrixil.
“…Trx-1 is the first drug shown to have any meaningful anti-cancer action against ovarian cancer stem cells…”
“…Trx-1 is a super-benzopyran compound selected for its potent ability to kill ovarian cancer stem (CD44-positive) cells and their daughter cancer (CD44-negative) cells...”
Novogen And CanTx Appoint Contract Manufacturers To Produce Clinical Batches Of Cantrixil(TM)
NEW HAVEN, Conn., July 25, 2014 /PRNewswire/ — Oncology drug developer, CanTx Inc., and its parent company, Novogen Ltd. (ASX; NRT: NASDAQ; NVGN), today announced that they have named two key contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs) to produce clinical batches of the experimental anti-cancer drug, Cantrixil(TM). CanTx and Novogen expect to file an Investigational New Drug (IND) application for Cantrixil early next year and to advance this compound into the clinic by mid- 2015.
Cantrixil, being developed by CanTx Inc, a joint venture company between Novogen and Yale University, has been developed specifically to treat cancers wholly or largely confined to the abdomen. It is comprised of the active drug, Trx-1, contained within a cyclodextrin carrier and is intended to be injected into the peritoneal cavity of patients. If shown to be as safe and as effective in clinical studies as it has in animal studies, Cantrixil could be the first anti-cancer drug approved as an intra-peritoneal therapy.
The potential of Cantrixil has emerged from studies at Yale, where researchers have developed ground-breaking screening tools to assess new drug candidates in the treatment of ovarian cancer.
“I have tested over a hundred new compounds in this model from many companies and never achieved any result that would give me confidence to take any of them into the clinic. Trx-1 was the first drug to show potent efficacy in the laboratory in killing ovarian cancer stem cells, the cells responsible for tumor growth and recurrence,” said Professor Gil Mor, M.D., Director of the Reproductive Science Division at the Department of Obstetrics Gynecology and Reproductive Science at Yale. “We decided that the best way to use Trx-1 was to inject it directly into the abdominal cavity where the ovarian cancer stem cells occur and are establishing the cancer. That was the concept behind Cantrixil and I am delighted to say that we found that it worked in our animal model.”
Trx-1 is the first drug shown to have any meaningful anti-cancer action against ovarian cancer stem cells, and Cantrixil is the first product shown to block the development of carcinomatosis in a mouse model developed by Yale to replicate the growth of ovarian cancer in women.
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Novogen Group CEO, Graham Kelly, PhD, emphasized the significant nature of these contracts. He said: “We are developing a product that we expect eventually to be the first anti-cancer drug approved specifically as an intra-peritoneal therapy. A number of hospitals currently give standard anti-cancer drugs intra-peritoneally off-label for the treatment of ovarian cancer and some other abdominal cancers, but that heightens their toxicity, meaning that this approach remains cautious. In our hands, Cantrixil has proven to be well tolerated in animals at doses delivering a significant anti-cancer effect.”
“This is an exciting path that we are now on,” Dr. Kelly continued. “The manufacturing programs currently underway will furnish us with sufficient drug to complete the IND process and to undertake Phase 1 studies in patients with late-stage ovarian cancer in 2015.”…..
About Cantrixil
Cantrixil is a construct of active ingredient, Trx-1, in a cyclodextrin carrier. Trx-1 is a super-benzopyran compound selected for its potent ability to kill ovarian cancer stem (CD44-positive) cells and their daughter cancer (CD44-negative) cells. Trx-1 inhibits electron-transfer mechanisms across cell membranes, resulting in both caspase-dependent and caspase-independent cell death. Trx-1 is a pan-acting anti-cancer agent with potent activity against a wide range of human cancer cell types including pancreatic cancer and colo-rectal cancer. In addition to its utility in the treatment of ovarian cancer, Cantrixil also is being investigated pre-clinically for its utility in the treatment of pancreatic cancer and certain other cancers of the abdominal cavity.
About Novogen Limited
Novogen is a public, Australian drug-development company whose shares trade on both the Australian Securities Exchange (‘NRT’) and NASDAQ (‘NVGN’). The Company has two main drug technology platforms: super-benzopyrans (SBPs) and anti-tropomyosins (ATMs). SBP compounds have been created to have a uniform cytotoxic effect against both cancer stem cell and are being developed in the first instance for the treatment of ovarian cancer, neural cancers (glioblastoma, neuroblastoma) and prostate cancer. ATM compounds target the cancer cell cytoskeleton and are being developed for the treatment of melanoma and prostate cancer.
Further information is available on the Company’s website, www.novogen.com.