The Race Oncology Ltd (ASX: RAC) share price flew higher today following a positive announcement by the pharmaceutical company.
At Tuesday's market close, Race Oncology shares ended the day up 9.90% to $1.665.
Let's take a look at what the company updated the ASX with.
Race Oncology highlights peer review research poster abstracts
In its statement, Race Oncology advised that in the scientific journal, Cancer Research, two peer review abstracts have been published. This comes after a recent presentation was given at the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Conference in April.
In the publication, both abstracts detail the new preclinical data on the anti-cancer uses of Zantrene.
The first abstract notes:
Conclusion: Through a comprehensive mechanistic analysis we explicitly demonstrate the biological and functional significance of FTO in governing PC [pancreatic cancer] tumorigenesis and maintenance of CSC; thus, targeting FTO may represent an attractive therapeutic approach for PC.
This describes preclinical data demonstrating Zantrene's ability to inhibit FTO and suppress pancreatic carcinogenesis via targeting cancer stem cell maintenance.
FTO refers to the fat mass and obesity-associated (FTO) gene, which mostly influences the body mass index (BMI).
Pancreatic cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death and has few effective treatment options available on the market.
The second abstract states:
Conclusion: Our study establishes the functional importance of FTO in CRC [colorectal cancer] and provides novel evidence for the potential use of FTO inhibitor as an adjunctive treatment to 5FU based chemotherapy for CRC patients".
The above paragraph explores the use of Zantrene as another treatment to be used together with the primary treatment.
This helps overcome colorectal cancer resistance to 5-FU based chemotherapy via inhibition of FTO in both cell and mouse models. Currently, resistance to 5-FU is a significant clinical issue as this drug remains a backbone of colorectal cancer treatment.
5-FU is a chemotherapy drug that is designed to slow the growth of cancer cells. This medicine is used to treat a number of cancers such as colon or rectal cancer, pancreatic cancer and more.
What did management say?
Race Oncology chief science officer, Dr Daniel Tillett commented:
This very promising research further highlights the emergence of Zantrene as an exquisitely potent inhibitor of FTO – one of the central genes in the proliferation of many cancers.
We are excited to see interest and use of Zantrene build, thanks to the efforts of great researchers like our collaborator Professor Chen and his colleagues.
Race Oncology share price review
Despite today's strong gains, the Race Oncology share price has lost 55% over the past 12 months.
Year-to-date has fared no better, down 53% for the 6 months so far.
Based on today's price, Race Oncology has a market capitalisation of about $241.67 million.
