Race Oncology Limited (“Race”) is pleased to announce a team of researchers, led by Professor Borje Andersson and Associate Professor Ben Valdez of the MD Anderson Cancer Center (Texas, USA), have identified a number of clinically translatable drug combinations that showed synergy with Zantrene® (bisantrene dihydrochloride) when tested in Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) cells.

This study¹, sponsored by Race, has been published in the Journal of Clinical & Experimental Oncology and is entitled “Synergism of the Anthracene-Derivative Anti-Cancer Agent Bisantrene with Nucleoside Analogs and A Bcl-2 Inhibitor in Acute Myeloid Leukemia Cells”.

The MD Anderson team identified that Zantrene®, when used in combination with the standard-of-care AML drugs cytarabine, cladribine, fludarabine, clofarabine and/or ABT199 (Venetoclax) showed enhanced activation of apoptosis (cell killing) in AML cells. Combinations of three or more of these drugs with Zantrene® showed additional synergism and effective cell killing at drug concentrations far below that observed when the drugs were used on their own.

This work provides the preclinical data to support our upcoming Phase 1b/2 relapsed / refractory AML trial at the Chaim Sheba Medical Center, where patients will be treated with Bisantrene in combination with the nucleoside analogs, clofarabine and fludarabine. This trial is scheduled to begin in Q2 CY 2021. We are extremely excited about being able to quickly translate this work from the lab into the clinic, where it has the potential to help AML patients in need.

Race Chief Scientific Officer, Dr Daniel Tillett

1. Valdez BC, Murray D, Li Y, Liu Y, Nieto Y, et al., (2021) Synergism of the Anthracene-Derivative Anti-Cancer Agent Bisantrene with Nucleoside Analogs and A Bcl-2 Inhibitor in Acute Myeloid Leukemia Cells. J Clin Exp Oncol 10:4.