FREIBURG, Germany, 1-Jul-2021 — /EPR HEALTHCARE NEWS/ — Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer. According to the American Cancer Association, 1 in every 8 men will be diagnosed with it in their lifetime. In 2018 around 1.2 million men were diagnosed and there were 360,000 deaths. In Europe alone, 450,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer every year. But there could be a cure on the horizon.

B66, a new company in Germany and a spin-off from the University of Freiburg, Germany, has strong preclinical evidence that its research has made a significant breakthrough after 6 years of dedicated work. Professors Roland Schule, Manfred Jung and Dr Eric Metzger have pioneered research into inhibitors of the histone methyltransferase KMT9 that controls the growth of castration and enzalutamide resistant prostate tumours. These small molecular inhibitors are superior to current state-of-the-art Gold Standard drugs in preclinical models. This new treatment has the prospect of increasing survival in the normally fatal outcome of castration-resistant prostate cancer and becoming the universal therapeutic agent. In addition, the research team’s work shows that their new therapeutic agent has potentials in other cancers including colorectal, breast, bladder and the biggest of all killers, lung cancer.

Professor Roland Schule, one of the B66 founders, and a professor of Biochemistry in the University Medical Centre of Freiburg said “Our findings and approach to treatment is far in advance of anything that is going on in the world at the moment.”

Fellow founder, Professor Manfred Jung, added “many cancer treatments cause damage to the patient’s normal cells but the B66 inhibitor does not target normal cells indicating that our treatment will have minimum side effects”.

Although focused on prostate cancer right now, the B66 team’s long-term objective is to create a world-class development platform that will work on the defeat of many other types of cancer. The Freiburg region, thanks to the University, is a unique centre of leading medical knowledge. B66 will expand their work and draw in some of the skilled scientists from the area to help them work towards building a leading medical development hub.

The B66 team is already seeking commercial partners in order to forward their breakthrough work and advance as quickly as possible to defeat this major cancer.

SOURCE: EuropaWire