VAL-083 combination therapies in chemo-resistant pediatric CNS cancers

More children die from brain cancer than from any other disease in the western world. Many anti-cancer drugs are unable to cross the blood-brain barrier to reach the tumor and certain genetic mutations in the tumor cells increase resistance to chemotherapeutics. The novel chemotherapeutic drug VAL-083 readily crosses the blood-brain barrier and accumulates in brain tumor tissues and has documented activity against pediatric brain tumors in historical clinical trials. VAL-083 has a distinct mechanism of action that enables it to overcome common chemo-resistances, as well as work synergistically with drugs of the topoisomerase inhibitor family. This project aims to identify topoisomerase inhibitors that display maximum synergy with VAL-083 in selected pediatric CNS tumors and examine the tolerability of these combinations. TO BE CONT’D

Faculty Supervisor:

Mads Daugaard

Student:

Sudha Kotapalli

Partner:

Del Mar Pharmaceuticals Ltd

Discipline:

Medicine

Sector:

Pharmaceuticals

University:

Program: