A team of researchers have identified a potential new drug treatment for a fatal childhood cancer Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG).

In pre-clinical testing in mouse models, the researchers found that the promising drug combination led to survival in two-thirds of the mice and that the drug combination completely halted the growth of these highly aggressive tumours in these mice.

The treatment is a combination of two drugs —difluoromethylornithine (DFMO), an established drug, and AMXT 1501.The DFMO is increasingly getting attention as a treatment for difficult-to-control cancers like neuroblastoma, another aggressive childhood cancer, and colorectal cancer in adults. DFMO works by targeting the polyamine pathway - an important mechanism that allows tumour cells to grow, the team said.

From these, they created the first laboratory models of the tumour in order to test new drugs. These models have been used to show that DIPG can bypass the activity of DFMO by pumping polyamines into cancer, essentially allowing the tumour to continue growing despite treatment with DFMO, the team said.

Treatment with AMXT 1501 was found to re-sensitize the DIPG cells to DFMO leading to what Ziegler said, "was a spectacular response in animal models, with a significantly increased survival and minimal toxicity (side effects)".

(This story was published from a syndicated feed. Only the headline and picture has been edited by FIT).