Han Xiao, a protein chemist at Rice University, and Shawn Zhang, a cancer biologist at Baylor College of Medicine, received an email with a big question: “When will your drug go to clinical trials?” The question came from a patient eager to try out a drug for breast cancer that had metastasized to the bone. When cancer spreads beyond the tissue where it developed, especially to bone, patients’ outcomes become less optimistic. More than hope hung on the patient’s email.
Xiao and Zhang developed an innovative therapeutic technology that sends medicine right to cancerous bone tissue by combining two drugs the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has already approved. By delivering therapy to tissues such as bone that are notoriously difficult for medicines to access, the new technology, dubbed BonTarg, could be a game changer for patients with metastasized breast cancers and other cancers and bone diseases.
“It’s quite ...
