Redefining the Rules of Cancer Treatment

Glioblastoma is an aggressive type of cancer that can occur in the brain or spinal cord. And while the disease can occur at any age, it tends to occur more often in older people. According to the American Cancer Society, United States, doctors diagnose between 12,000 and 14,000 patients with glioblastoma in the U.S. each year. There is currently no cure for glioblastoma. The median length of survival after a diagnosis is 15- 18 months, while the disease’s five-year survival rate is around 10%. And while all glioblastomas recur, initial treatments may keep the tumor controlled for months or even years. To improve the current standard of care, ongoing research and development is required. Earlier this year, researchers at Modifi Biosciences published a critical study in thejournal Science, validating a new oncology platform based on new classes of molecules that exploit tumor-associated DNA repair defects through direct cancer cell DNA modification. This approach redefines the rules on how to selectively kill cancer cells via direct DNA modification The technology bypasses conventional approaches that indirectly target proteins in cancer cells and demonstrates robust anti-tumor activity in glioma, one of the deadliest forms of brain cancer, while sparing normal tissue. In the publication in Science, a new class of molecules were found to be very selective against cancer cells that lack expression of a key DNA repair protein. And approximately half of all glioblastomas and up to 80% of gliomas lack this particular protein. Furthermore. emerging research indicates that this deficiency is seen in many other tumor types, suggesting broad applicability for this strategy in treating cancer. Based on this research, scientists at Modifi Bio are creating a new class of molecules, based on research conducted at Yale. In this episode of The Onco’Zine Brief, Peter Hofland, Ph.D. talks with Ranjit S. Bindra, MD, Ph.D., a physician-scientist at Yale School of Medicine and the co-founder of Modify Bio. Reference [1] Lin K, Gueble SE, Sundaram RK, Huseman ED, Bindra RS, Herzon SB. Mechanism-based design of agents that selectively target drug-resistant glioma. Science. 2022 Jul 29;377(6605):502-511. doi: 10.1126/science.abn7570. Epub 2022 Jul 28. PMID: 35901163.