PhytoMedical Technologies, Inc. (Symbol: PYTO), together with its wholly owned subsidiaries, is an early stage research based biopharmaceutical company focused on the identification, acquisition, development and commercialization of innovative pharmaceutical compounds targeting cancer and hematologic disorders.
A New Class Of Antitumor Agents Designed To Bind To DNA And Kill Cancer Cells.
Cancer kills more than 1,500 Americans each day and is the second leading cause of death in America. Cancer is attributed to one in every four deaths nationally, and accounts for at least one in every ten dollars spent on healthcare. According to the American Cancer Society, 2006 estimates peg direct medical costs (the total of all health expenditures) at $78.2 billion and the total estimated cost of cancer (which includes indirect morbidity and mortality costs) at $206.3 billion.
Currently, at least 9.6 million Americans have been diagnosed with cancer according to National Cancer Institute estimates, with a staggering 1.4 million new cases expected by the end of this year. Despite spending more than $1 trillion to fight the disease in over three decades of research, over half a million Americans are expected to die of cancer this year, with the ‘lifetime risk’ of developing cancer still remaining high: In the US, men have a little less than 1 in 2 lifetime risk of developing cancer; for women the risk is a little more than 1 in 3.
In response, PhytoMedical is working in collaboration with scientists at Dartmouth College to develop new anti-cancer compounds. Dartmouth scientists have synthesized a novel class of antitumor agents with a cytotoxic affinity for cancer cells, designed to bind more tightly to cancer cell DNA than many conventional anticancer drugs by a process called bis-intercalation or “double binding,” much like a molecular staple. Because the DNA is the blueprint of life for the cancer cell, such binding stops the replication of the DNA, which prevents the growth of the cancer cell and it dies.
Working with Dartmouth scientists, PhytoMedical plans to improve upon the concept of bis-intercalation and will evaluate these new compounds against several different cancer cell lines, including prostate, lung, brain and bladder cancer.
Cancer Screening and Diagnosis
Screening is the detection of cancer in otherwise asymptomatic patients. Its importance cannot be overlooked as cancer is often most successfully treated in its earliest stages, where treatments can be less aggressive, less invasive yet more effective. According to the National Cancer Institute, it is estimated that up to 35% of the premature deaths due to cancer could have been avoided by screening.
Clearly, with estimates that 559,560 Americans will die of cancer in 2007, the possibility of saving more than a third of those lives through screening is cause for great hope. That hope, however, must be moderated. Screening presents risks of its own, from false positives (and negatives) to damage due to invasive screening to screening actually contributing to carcinogenic exposure as in the case of repeated diagnostic X-rays. Moreover, the effectiveness of a given screening program as well as the costs associated with screening programs must be taken into account.
Once a cancer has been detected its existence must be confirmed through diagnosis. Like screening, diagnosis can also cause damage. Diagnosis requires direct the examination of the cells in question. A quantity of tissue is extracted from the person who has had a positive screening result, often by biopsy, a procedure that can be so invasive that it is sometimes classed as a major surgical procedure.
Despite the risk involved, diagnosis –specifically biopsy procedures –play an essential role in cancer treatment. Biopsied tissue can provide information about the histological type (kind of cancer) and the degree of dissimilarity to normal tissue. Furthermore, in the course of performing a biopsy on tumors, doctors often acquire information about tumor size and so are able to identify a cancer’s stage. Cancer type, degree of dissimilarity to normal tissue and stage are all factors considered in deciding upon a course of treatment.
Cancer Treatment
Cancer treatment can be divided into five main categories:
Surgery
Surgery involves the removal of all or part of a localized tumor. Often, nearby lymph tissue is removed as a preventative measure.
Radiation
Radiotherapy attempts to kill cancerous cells through the use of radiation. Radiation does not distinguish between healthy, normal cells and cells which are cancerous. Surrounding healthy tissue can be damaged.
Chemotherapy
By slowing or stopping the growth of cancerous cells, chemotherapy can ease, control or even cure some cancers. However, healthy cells whose growth and division rates are high, like hair can be adversely affected. Other side effects include nausea and vomiting.
Hormone Therapy
Because some cancers require hormones to flourish, stopping the production of the relevant hormones or interfering with their hormone receptor sites can kill or slow their growth. Hormones, however, are important chemical signalers in the body and manipulating hormone production or interfering with hormone receptor sites can cause side effects like nausea and weight gain.
Biological Therapy
It has been hypothesized that cancerous cells are not effectively targeted by the body’s immune system because of their similarity to normal cells. Biological therapies aim to stimulate the immune system to attack cancerous cells. Side effects can include rashes or swelling at injection sites, flu-like symptoms and lowered blood pressure.
Combination Therapies
Combination therapies can include some or all of the above therapies used in conjunction.
PhytoMedical’s approach is to design a compound which attacks cancer cells directly. Cancer cells typically divide faster than normal cells, have larger nuclei and more DNA than normal cells and are often more susceptible to drugs than normal cells. Therefore, one anticancer strategy is to design molecules that will block the replication of DNA. One such mechanism is “intercalation”, in which the drug inserts itself between adjacent base pairs and, in so doing, blocks DNA replication, and eventually leads to death of the cancer cell.
PhytoMedical’s strategy is to design molecules (“bis-intercalators”) that can intercalate simultaneously at two DNA sites, thus attacking and binding to the DNA of specific cancer cells in order to stop their replication and ultimately resulting in the death of the cancer cell.
Phytomedical’s research involves the chemical synthesis of several variations of novel bis-acridines for cancer and evaluation. Depending on research outcomes, our plans are to fund various in vitro (test tube) and in vivo (animal) experiments that will involve the use of several commercially available human cancer cell lines covering key areas of concern such as glioblastoma (tumors related to the central nervous system, including but not limited to the brain, spinal cord and optic nerve), small cell lung, breast, kidney, pancreatic, and liver cancers. Our goal, based on the results of both the in vitro and in vivo tests, will involve identification of the key compound(s) that demonstrate the greatest anti-cancer activity per human cancer cell line.
