Queensland women with an aggressive type of breast cancer have the opportunity to take part in a world-first trial of a new treatment.
Research by QIMR Berghofer scientists has led to the development of a promising combination therapy that targets a currently treatment-resistant breast cancer.
Professor Sudha Rao said the treatment could offer hope for patients who have few options to treat the deadly disease, with the Brisbane-based Institute recruiting 24 women with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, to receive the combination therapy at sites across Queensland.
Professor Rao said the treatment was a result of QIMR Berghofer scientists collaborating with Australian drug development company Kazia Therapeutics, and combining its drug candidate, paxalisib, with immunotherapy in pre-clinical models.
She said the team discovered that this combination approach triggered a molecular epigenetic process where dormant cancer cells were re-programmed, making them visible to the immune system, while also reinvigorating the immune cells to fight the tumour cells.
“The hope is to prolong survival of patients through the new combined therapy.”
Professor Rao said triple-negative breast cancer was more commonly diagnosed in younger women, aged under 40 years.
She said if the disease spread to other parts of the body, treatment options were very limited.
“There is no cure for advanced triple-negative breast cancer and the life expectancy for these women is tragically short. We want to identify treatments to extend the duration and quality of life of these patients,” Professor Rao said.
“This could be a game changer because we know immunotherapy is only successful in a handful of patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer.
“Our pre-clinical findings have given us real hope that paxalisib could ensure immunotherapy is effective for more patients.”
Professor Rao said the clinical trial had begun recruiting patients at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, with more trial sites planned for the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast.
She said interested participants should discuss the trial and the specific eligibility criteria with their oncologist.
