With personalized medicine, a shelved cancer drug could get another shot
Triplatin, a 30-year-old experimental cancer drug, has faced a bumpy road on the path to FDA approval, failing several phase II clinical trials in the 2000s. But a new study offers insight that could finally help to get triplatin over the finish line. The researchers found that about 40% of triple negative breast cancer cases had tumors rich in sugars called sulfated glycosaminoglycans (sGAG), which triplatin homes in on, causing the drug to accumulate inside cancer cells where it can do the most damage. This result suggests that clinical trials revisiting triplatin can focus on patients with high sGAG levels to set the drug up for success, rather than diluting any positive effects among a mixed pool of patients.
Materials provided by Virginia Commonwealth University. Original written by Erin Hare. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
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