Grant: Collaborative Health Research Projects

The proposed work involves the development of a drug that will improve the effectiveness ofradiation therapy. Since radiation therapy is used to treat about 50% of all cancers this drugcould have very wide impact, improving cure rates as well as quality of life. The drug works bypreventing the repair of DNA damage induced by radiation. The main advantage of this drugis that it is targeted to tumours due to its limited activity anywhere but in hypoxic cells.Hypoxic cells are rare in the body but are common in cancers, and are responsible forresistance to radiation.We already have lead compounds that work in cells and early animal data, but new chemistryand screening work need to be done to develop these compounds into drugs suitable for usein humans. We will synthesize new compounds based on our understanding of how our leadcompound works, and will test them in cells and rodent models of human cancer. We haveinvaluable guidance to the clinic and eventual commercial opportunities through ourpartnership with the Clinical Oncology department at the BC Cancer Agency, and with DelMarPharmaceuticals, a Canadian biotechnology company. The final result of this program will bethe nomination of a clinical candidate that can be advanced to regulatory processing andcommercial partnership. This outcome will produce excellent academic science, an economicbenefit to the BC Cancer Agency, and could impact the approximately half of all Canadiancancer patients who receive radiation therapy.