Mr. Cricket
Committee Member
A British Biopharmaceutical company [AVACTA] I've followed for many years have been treating 'end of life' patients that have terminal Cancers for over a year at several hospitals throughout the UK and sites in the USA have also been earmarked for more human trials. I thought I'd share this as let’s face it, most of us will know of friends or family that are affected by Cancer, both my parents passed away from Cancer.
Today they announced the trials had gone better than expected and will continue and escalate.
Most will be familiar with Chemotherapy and some will be aware of the horrendous side effects that mean some people with other (than Cancer) underlying health issues cannot receive Chemo such as heart failure, fitness, age and other illnesses. There are several (16 I believe) different Chemo drugs each targeting different types of Cancer and Doxorubicin is one of them and is referred to as the red devil due to its bright red appearance and toxicity to organs and especially the heart.
So, in Layman's terms what are they doing?
Avacta have taken Doxorubicin and installed a switch that renders the drug inert when it enters the patient where it then seeks out a protein found in tumours (FAP) where it then activates and concentrates on entering the tumour itself limiting the amount of free-flowing Chemo drug in the bloodstream and therefore into other organs.
About AVA6000 (from the Avacta Website)
AVA6000 is a novel form of doxorubicin that has been modified with Avacta's pre|CISION™ FAP-activated delivery platform to improve its safety and therapeutic index. AVA6000 has been designed to limit cell penetration of the drug- and therefore its cell killing effect- until it is specifically activated by fibroblast activation protein α (FAP) which is in high concentration in many solid tumours compared with healthy tissues. The resulting reduced exposure of healthy tissues to free doxorubicin has the potential to significantly increase its therapeutic index by reducing the incidence of adverse effects, including cardiotoxicity and myelosuppression.
And from today’s announcement:
Positive safety profile of AVA6000 continues in the fourth cohort
Analysis of six tumour biopsies confirms the tumour targeting potential of pre|CISIONTM technology
Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), a life sciences company developing innovative, targeted oncology drugs and powerful diagnostics announces that AVA6000 continues to show a very favourable safety profile in the fourth dose cohort of the ALS-6000-101 dose escalation phase 1 clinical trial. Additionally, analysis of tumour biopsies obtained from six patients across several cohorts indicates that doxorubicin is being released within the tumour tissue confirming the tumour targeting potential of the pre|CISIONTM technology.
AVA6000 continues to be well tolerated by patients in cohort 4 with a marked reduction in the incidence and severity of the typical toxicities associated with the standard doxorubicin chemotherapy administration. Typical toxicities include alopecia, myelosuppression, nausea, vomiting, mucositis and cardiotoxicity. Importantly, even at the highest dosing levels in cohort 4, equivalent to more than double the normal dose of doxorubicin, the typical drug-related cardiotoxicity of doxorubicin was not observed.
A number of tumour biopsies obtained from patients in different cohorts have also been analysed in order to confirm the release of the active chemotherapy, doxorubicin, in the tumour tissue. This analysis shows that AVA6000 targets the release of doxorubicin to the tumour tissue at therapeutic levels which are much higher than the levels being detected in the bloodstream at the same timepoint.
I’ve posted this (in off topic) as while there are still other trials to be done – one being increasing the dosage to find the maximum tolerated dose a human can receive it is without doubt a major step forward in the treatment of this dreadful ailment. I personally know of three club members currently receiving chemo as unfortunately a large part of the club’s membership are the wrong side of 50.
Avacta’s website goes into great depth and is a fascinating read www.avacta.com
Stuart
Today they announced the trials had gone better than expected and will continue and escalate.
Most will be familiar with Chemotherapy and some will be aware of the horrendous side effects that mean some people with other (than Cancer) underlying health issues cannot receive Chemo such as heart failure, fitness, age and other illnesses. There are several (16 I believe) different Chemo drugs each targeting different types of Cancer and Doxorubicin is one of them and is referred to as the red devil due to its bright red appearance and toxicity to organs and especially the heart.
So, in Layman's terms what are they doing?
Avacta have taken Doxorubicin and installed a switch that renders the drug inert when it enters the patient where it then seeks out a protein found in tumours (FAP) where it then activates and concentrates on entering the tumour itself limiting the amount of free-flowing Chemo drug in the bloodstream and therefore into other organs.
About AVA6000 (from the Avacta Website)
AVA6000 is a novel form of doxorubicin that has been modified with Avacta's pre|CISION™ FAP-activated delivery platform to improve its safety and therapeutic index. AVA6000 has been designed to limit cell penetration of the drug- and therefore its cell killing effect- until it is specifically activated by fibroblast activation protein α (FAP) which is in high concentration in many solid tumours compared with healthy tissues. The resulting reduced exposure of healthy tissues to free doxorubicin has the potential to significantly increase its therapeutic index by reducing the incidence of adverse effects, including cardiotoxicity and myelosuppression.
And from today’s announcement:
Positive safety profile of AVA6000 continues in the fourth cohort
Analysis of six tumour biopsies confirms the tumour targeting potential of pre|CISIONTM technology
Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), a life sciences company developing innovative, targeted oncology drugs and powerful diagnostics announces that AVA6000 continues to show a very favourable safety profile in the fourth dose cohort of the ALS-6000-101 dose escalation phase 1 clinical trial. Additionally, analysis of tumour biopsies obtained from six patients across several cohorts indicates that doxorubicin is being released within the tumour tissue confirming the tumour targeting potential of the pre|CISIONTM technology.
AVA6000 continues to be well tolerated by patients in cohort 4 with a marked reduction in the incidence and severity of the typical toxicities associated with the standard doxorubicin chemotherapy administration. Typical toxicities include alopecia, myelosuppression, nausea, vomiting, mucositis and cardiotoxicity. Importantly, even at the highest dosing levels in cohort 4, equivalent to more than double the normal dose of doxorubicin, the typical drug-related cardiotoxicity of doxorubicin was not observed.
A number of tumour biopsies obtained from patients in different cohorts have also been analysed in order to confirm the release of the active chemotherapy, doxorubicin, in the tumour tissue. This analysis shows that AVA6000 targets the release of doxorubicin to the tumour tissue at therapeutic levels which are much higher than the levels being detected in the bloodstream at the same timepoint.
I’ve posted this (in off topic) as while there are still other trials to be done – one being increasing the dosage to find the maximum tolerated dose a human can receive it is without doubt a major step forward in the treatment of this dreadful ailment. I personally know of three club members currently receiving chemo as unfortunately a large part of the club’s membership are the wrong side of 50.
Avacta’s website goes into great depth and is a fascinating read www.avacta.com
Stuart
and thanks also for sharing 
Morcome & Wise?