Australian-discovered therapy moves to late-stage clinical trial for advanced breast cancers

MELBOURNE, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- An Australian-discovered therapy has reached a significant milestone, with Pfizer Inc. beginning a Phase 3 clinical trial of a potential new treatment for advanced breast cancers.

The first-in-class therapy is being studied as a treatment in adults with HR+, HER2-advanced or metastatic breast cancer whose disease progressed following prior treatments, according to a statement released Thursday by Australia's Monash University.

Known as PF-07248144 and co-invented by scientists at Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS) and the government-funded Cancer Therapeutics Cooperative Research Center (CTx), the therapy blocks two proteins, KAT6A and KAT6B, which help control how genes are switched on and off, it said.

Because these proteins influence how cells grow and develop, finding ways to block them can "turn down the volume" on those genes and slow the cancer's ability to grow and spread, the statement said.

In earlier Phase 1 studies, PF-07248144 combined with fulvestrant, a type of hormone therapy, achieved a 37 percent objective response rate in patients.

Pfizer licensed the KAT6 platform in 2018 through Oncology One, CTx's commercialization partner, and developed PF-07248144.

"The discovery of PF-07248144 is an important scientific advance. For the first time, selective targeting of KAT6 opens new avenues for the treatment of advanced breast cancers," said MIPS medicinal chemist Paul Stupple. Enditem