Theralase anti-cancer drug, activated by laser light, destroys throat cancer

Sept. 19, 2017
The company's TLD-1433 anti-cancer drug has proven effective in the destruction of a human pharyngeal carcinoma cell line. 

Biotechnology company Theralase Technologies (Toronto, ON, Canada), which focuses on the commercialization of medical lasers to eliminate pain and the development of photodynamic compounds (PDCs) to destroy cancer, has shown that its TLD-1433 anti-cancer drug has proven effective in the destruction of a human pharyngeal carcinoma cell line (FaDu).

Related: Theralase increases patient enrollment for photodynamic bladder cancer treatments

Research conducted by Pavel Kaspler, Ph.D., a research scientist at Theralase, under the direction of Arkady Mandel, MD, Ph.D., D.Sc., chief scientific officer at Theralase, has demonstrated that FaDu was 98% destroyed at an extremely low dose of TLD-1433 (0.2 µM) when activated by green laser light (530 nm, 90 J/cm2) and 98% destroyed at a low dose of TLD-1433 (25 µM) when activated by red laser light (625 nm, 90 J/cm2).

The ability to activate TLD-1433 at both green and red laser wavelengths allows the PDC to be activated at various tissue depths corresponding to the progression of the disease.

The dark toxicity (TLD-1433, but no laser light applied) was virtually negligible when activated by green laser light and low when activated by red laser light, supporting a high safety margin in the destruction of human pharyngeal carcinoma cells.

"TLD-1433 continues to advance in the destruction of new oncology targets, demonstrating high efficacy in the destruction of numerous cancers preclinically," Mandel says. "We have strong preclinical data supporting the use of Rutherrin (TLD-1433 + transferrin) in the destruction of glioblastoma brain cancer and lung cancer and now TLD-1433 on its own in the destruction of cervical and pharyngeal cancer."

"The Theralase-licensed PDCs have proven to be very strong anti-cancer drugs in initial clinical studies for NMIBC and preclinically for glioblastoma, lung, cervical, and now pharyngeal cancer," says Roger Dumoulin-White, president and CEO of Theralase. "We look forward to successfully expanding the clinical application of our platform of PDCs, and the laser light systems that activate them, through Phase Ib clinical studies, as we expand into these new oncological targets."

For more information, please visit www.theralase.com.

About the Author

BioOptics World Editors

We edited the content of this article, which was contributed by outside sources, to fit our style and substance requirements. (Editor’s Note: BioOptics World has folded as a brand and is now part of Laser Focus World, effective in 2022.)

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