Investigational Drug May Treat Biliary Cancers, Study Suggests

Tytler and his colleagues assessed the potential of triphendiol as a treatment for pancreatic adenocarcinoma using three representative cell lines. Triphendiol induced cell death in all three cell lines and pre-treating the cell lines with triphendiol increased the effectiveness of chemotherapy. Animal model studies showed that triphendiol in combination with chemotherapy inhibited tumor growth more effectively than each drug alone.

"In our laboratory studies, triphendiol is more potent at inducing cell death in pancreatic and bile duct cancer cells compared to the chemotherapy drug gemcitabine alone at up to 10-fold lower concentrations," Tytler said. "Of course, there is still much work to be done before this could become a treatment protocol for cancer patients but our findings are promising and validate the continued development of triphendiol as a possible pancreatic cancer therapy."

Triphendiol is being developed by Marshall Edwards Inc., as a treatment for late stage pancreatic and gall bladder cancer and recently received orphan drug status by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Triphendiol has been licensed by Novogen to Marshall Edwards Inc., who funded Tytler's study.

Tytler said that there is an urgent need for new pancreatic cancer treatments because fewer than 20 percent of patients are candidates for surgery. Current treatment is limited to chemotherapy, which is not always effective, as most tumors are resistant to or become resistant to the commonly used chemotherapy drug for pancreatic tumors, gemcitabine.

The findings were presented April 13 by Ewan Tytler, Ph.D., assistant professor in the UAB Department of Surgery, Gastrointestinal Section, at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). UAB research associate Xiaohong Wang, M.D. and UAB professor of Surgery J. Anthony Thompson, Ph.D., are co-authors of the study.