Physicians at the John Theurer Cancer Center have enrolled the first two patients nationwide in an international phase II clinical trial of Kazia Therapeutics’s novel therapy, GDC-0084, for glioblastoma.
Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common and aggressive form of primary brain cancer, with limited available FDA-approved treatments and a median survival of only 15 months from diagnosis. About 12,500 patients in the US are diagnosed with GBM each year, including Senator John McCain, who recently passed away from the disease.
The drug, GDC-0084, is being developed by the Australian biotech Kazia Therapeutics Limited as an alternative treatment option for the two thirds of patients resistant to the mainstay of current pharmacological treatment for glioblastoma, temozolomide. GDC-0084 is an inhibitor of the PI3K signaling pathway, a change in DNA thought to drive growth of up to 90 percent of GBM cases.
“Precision treatment of GBM on a DNA level, or ‘targeted therapy,’ allows us to hone our attack on the tumor and minimize impact on healthy cells,” said Samuel A. Goldlust, M.D., primary investigator and neuro-oncologist at the John Theurer Cancer Center. “We’re proud to be leading the way in access to the most promising GBM therapies in collaboration with other top cancer centers nationwide.”
GDC-0084 was granted Orphan Drug Designation by the US Food and Drug Administration, recognizing the drug as a potential treatment for a rare disease with high unmet patient need.
(Source: John Theurer Cancer Center)
Filed Under: Oncology
