Novogen's TRXE-009 kills brain cancer stem cells

Shares of Australian biotech company Novogen (ASX:NRT) rose dramatically, as it announced that one of its lead candidate products, TRXE-009, is showing the potential to become an important new therapy in the fight against adult and pediatric brain cancer.

The company’s study looked at the ability of TRXE-009 to kill a library of patient-derived cell cultures from subjects with glioblastoma multiform (GBM). The cells were cultured under conditions that promote cancer stem cell growth. These stem-like cancer cells are believed to be responsible for chemotherapy resistance and tumor recurrence. All patient derived cancer cells represented in the library responded to TRXE-009 at clinically relevant doses, suggesting a strong therapeutic potential. Shares rose up to 38% on the news.

These findings join with other recently announced preclinical studies showing that TRXE-009 is highly cytotoxic of chemo-resistant pediatric brain cancers such as Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG) as well as other pediatric neural and neural crest-derived tumors (ie, medulloblastoma and neuroblastoma, respectively).