Fc-folate conjugate for the treatment of triple negative breast cancer

Case ID:
14-1221

Approximately 13% of women in the United States will develop breast cancer according to the American Cancer Society.  That makes breast cancer the second leading cause of cancer death in women right behind lung cancer.  Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) represents about 10 – 20% of all breast cancers.  Triple negative refers to cancer cells that do not have estrogen or progesterone receptors therefore these cancer cells do not respond to drug therapies that target either or both of those receptors.  TNBC cells also have a third mutation in what is known as the HER2 protein.  This protein promotes cell growth.  These cancers do not respond to therapies targeting estrogen or progesterone receptors and they grow rapidly. The lack of these receptors is why this type of breast cancer is so difficult to treat.  TNBCs are more prevalent in younger (under 40) African American women.  This technology is developing a new therapy that actually enhances a woman’s own immune system to target the breast cancer cells.  The putative mechanism works to mimick a portion of IgA antibodies.  By using a portion of the antibody, the drug is small enough to penetrate into to the tumors.  This drug is designed to bind to a particular receptor found on triple negative breast cancer cells and attracts neutrophils to the cancer cell and kill it.  The abundance of neutrophils in body tissue which makes it highly probable that they will be able to find the cancer cells with the drug bound to it.  This provides a novel therapy for a type of breast cancer that is currently very difficult to treat.

Patent Information:
For Information, Contact:
Ken Massey
Wayne State University
cq0728@wayne.edu
Inventors:
Cecilia Speyer
Keywords:
Anti-cancer
Breast Cancer
Cancer
Cancer Therapies