$NVLX is making leaps and bounds towards treating patients with Pancreatic cancer.
According to the American cancer Society, in the US alone, approximately 45,000 new cases of pancreatic cancer are expected to be diagnosed this year and about 38,000 people are predicted to die from the disease; it is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the US and worldwide. Often pancreatic cancer is not diagnosed until it has reached an advanced stage. By this time, the cancer cannot be removed surgically, is often resistant to radiation therapy or chemotherapy, and has spread (metastasized) to other organs in the body. Because of this, the average survival of patients with advanced, inoperable pancreatic cancer is given in terms of weeks or months, not years.
Nuvilex’s pancreatic cancer treatment consists of the use of a proprietary cellulose-based live-cell encapsulation technology together with the long-known and widely used anticancer drug ifosfamide (IFEX®). Ifosfamide is a prodrug that must be activated to its cancer-killing form for it to be effective; this usually occurs in the liver. pancreatic-trialIfosfamide is administered intravenously (systemically), and like all anticancer drugs given this way, can cause drug-related toxicities in organs of the body unrelated to the tumor itself. The 22P1G cells encapsulated are capable of converting ifosfamide into its cancer killing form. The cells contain high levels of activity of one of the components of the cytochrome P450 enzyme system known as CYP2B1. The cytochrome P450 enzyme system is found in the liver and is responsible for the metabolism of lipids, steroid hormones, drugs, and other toxic substances. In actual practice, the pancreatic cancer treatment consists of first implanting the capsules containing the ifosfamide-activating cells through the use of radiography and then giving ifosfamide by its usual route of administration.
