It may only be a start, but one Taumarunui cancer patient will take what he can get.
The King Country father of two who only wanted to be known as Richard is one of 12 Waikato and King Country people who have been testing anti-cancer compound PR-104 over the past year.
Today it was announced the trial will continue for another year after US-based drug discovery company Proacta Inc said it had raised another $US35 million (NZD$51 million) to extend clinical development and discovery of new compounds worldwide, including New Zealand.
Richard, who has sarcoma –- a cancer of the connective or supportive tissue –- came off the drug last month after four months because the cancer stopped reacting to it.
However, the stop in treatment means his body can have a break and he hoped to get on the next round of trials.
“Really, you always hope for some miracle, but it’s more likely it might not help me but it might help someone further down the track,” he said.
Richard’s oncology specialist, Dr Michael Jameson, has been leading his team of 12 through clinical trials of the New Zealand-discovered compound PR-104, the first of which started at Waikato Hospital early last year.
Clinicians in Australia and the US have also been testing the drug and Auckland University will soon begin treating patients with PR-104 thanks to the new money.
Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre Professor Bill Wilson, who along with Professor Bill Denny are the founding scientists of Proacta, said PR-104 was a unique anti-cancer drug that was converted to a DNA damaging agent in the hypoxic (oxygen deficient) regions in tumours.
Dr Jameson was excited by the added funding as it proved Kiwi scientists could foot it with the best of them, but believed it was the result of great team work.
Dr Jameson said although they were still years away from finding a cure there were early signs PR-104 was active in people and “very well tolerated”.
“There’s no major tumour shrinkage but we are seeing some minor shrinkage of tumours for a while.”
