Trial and Error: Researchers Publish Findings From First UC Phase I Trial

UC Health News

Sometimes in life, the only way to learn is through failure.The same is true in science: Without testing a hypothesis, which sometimes is incorrect, researchers wouldn’t know how to tweak experiments or improve drug combinations to make important strides.Researchers at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine recently published a study—their inaugural study in the Phase I Experimental Therapeutics Program first formed in 2010—which did not have favorable outcomes, but that opens the possibility for future studies which could be applicable to patient treatment in the future."It was our first investigator-sponsored trial, but it just didn’t work out the way we hoped. However, the results of our study do highlight the critical need for consideration of biopharmaceutical properties in designing investigational agents targeting molecular pathways and drug delivery approaches to find therapeutically relevant drug combinations,” says John Morris, MD, study co-author and director of the UC Phase I Experimental Therapeutics Program.The study, published in the journal Targeted Oncology, found that the combination of two targeted therapies which showed promise in preclinical models (human tumor samples and animal models) were not beneficial and caused a number of side effects in patients enrolled in the study."The development of molecularly targeted agents, small molecules or antibodies directed against specific cancer-causing targets, has transformed cancer therapy, leading to improved disease control and extended survival,” says Morris, co-leader of the UC Cancer Institute's Comprehensive Lung Cancer Program, member within the Cincinnati Cancer Consortium, professor in the division of hematology oncology and UC Health medical oncologist. "However, only a few of these agents have been successful as single agents, likely because many tumors develop alternate signaling pathways or harbor additional genetic alterations and are not driven by a single mutation. Therefore, these tumors require targeting of multiple key signaling regulators, warranting combination therapy.”Morris says a pathway known ...

Read More