Sierra Oncology Inc (NASDAQ:SRRA), which has licensed Sareum Holdings Plc’s (LON:SAR) small molecule inhibitor of Checkpoint kinase 1 (Chk1), is to present at the 2017 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting.
Sierra, formerly known as ProNAi Therapeutics, will be presenting two trials in progress posters on 5 June describing the innovative Phase 1 clinical designs for its Chk1 inhibitor, SRA737.
The trials were recently amended to include cohort expansions of prospectively selected patients with tumours that have genetic abnormalities thought to confer sensitivity to Chk1 therapy.
Chk1 controls a cancer cell's response to DNA damage, which could be caused by the disease itself or intentionally caused by chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
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"This announcement shows the interest by the scientific community in Sierra's leading-edge strategy that builds on Chk1's specific biological role in cancer, which has been made possible by recent developments in genetic analysis and is part of the progress towards personalised anti-cancer therapies,” said Dr Tim Mitchell, chief executive officer of Sareum.
“We can expect a further update from Sierra in early 2018," he added.