DURHAM, N.C. -- Researchers at the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center and Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure (ABC2), a nonprofit foundation, hope to compress the lengthy and expensive process of testing new brain cancer drugs through a unique collaboration to accelerate drug development faster than traditional approaches.
"The goal of the collaboration is to rapidly move potentially life-saving drugs from the laboratory to the clinic in an effort to save brain tumor patients, who have little time and few therapeutic options available to them," said Darell Bigner, M.D., director pro tempore of the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center.
The protocol invites researchers from any venue academia, corporations and government agencies to submit compounds to Duke for immediate screening, free of charge. "Such an offer is highly unusual in the drug research and development arena," said Bigner, "where funding is extremely scarce for so-called translational' studies that advance drugs from the laboratory to the clinic.
"With the help of ABC2, we are filling a tremendous void in the drug discovery and development arena," said Bigner. "The partnership is truly unique because ABC2 is establishing a critical link between biotech and pharmaceutical companies and academia to quickly evaluate compounds and move them into clinical trials."
The open invitation to researchers is expected to encourage pharmaceutical companies to submit their approved and experimental anti-cancer drugs (for breast, colon, lung cancer, etc.) to Duke for further testing for their potential utility against brain cancer, since there will be no cost to the companies.
According to Bigner, Duke is in a unique position to provide this opportunity because of its creative partnership with ABC2, which is helping to fund the drug discovery process for brain tumor drugs at Duke. Funding from ABC2 will support researchers in the Brain Tumor Center at Duke as they test new and exist
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Contact: Becky Levine
levin005@mc.duke.edu
919-684-4148
Duke University Medical Center
8-Apr-2002