Propanc Health Group Has Unique Anti-Metastasic Dr
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Propanc Health Group Corp., a biopharmaceutical company organized in Melbourne, Australia, in 2007, has developed a unique drug for the treatment of many types of cancer specifically targeting the process of metastasis. Targeted therapies for metastatic cancer has long been regarded as an important goal in cancer research, as metastasis is the cause of most cancer-related deaths and as no currently approved cancer therapies target metastasis.
Most types of cancer – specifically those that initially arise as solid tumors – develop over long periods of time, remaining non-malignant or at least relatively treatable if identified at this early stage. Cancer becomes far more serious and difficult to treat when it spreads to new locations within the body. This process, called metastasis, is dangerous for a number of reasons. For one, it leads to the establishment of tumors in organs where simple surgical removal may not be possible. Tumors that begin in the skin, for example, can be easily removed if caught early, but metastases that end up in the lungs or the brain or anywhere near a large blood vessel can be dangerous to approach surgically.
Even more importantly, once a tumor has been found to spread to one site, it has very likely spread to many sites already. In these cases, simple surgical removal of one of the metastatic tumor is not nearly enough to deal with the spread. And metastatic tumors are often difficult to define clearly – tumors that start out as well-defined lumps are often diffuse and deeply integrated into the tissue when they are metastatic, again making them hard to approach surgically.
Finally, metastatic tumors have other qualities that make them more dangerous than primary tumors. Tumors that arise in skin, for example, maintain some of the qualities of skin cells for a time, but if they progress toward metastasis, they have typically acquired the qualities of the less well defined cells that normally live in places below the skin or below the surfaces of organs called mesenchymal cells. This transition from the qualities of epithelial (skin-like) cells to mesenchymal cells, also referred to as an epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT), has long been recognized as a general feature of the development of many types of cancer. Scientists have documented characteristic changes in the surfaces of these cells that are associated with the epithelial to mesenchymal transition, which includes the loss of a protein that normally allows these cells to stick tightly together, as in skin. This molecule, called E-cadherin, is a normal part of all skin cells and many other cell types that line the surfaces of organs.
Propanc has developed a blend of naturally-occurring chemicals – PRP – that has now been shown to specifically block or reverse the processes that lead to the development of metastases and their ability to grow and spread further. These chemicals, or proenzymes, are normally manufactured by the pancreas. In fact, the company name Propanc is derived from the words "proenzyme" and "pancreas". In tests on cancer cells, PRP was able to halt the growth of cancer cells and cause these cells to undergo cell death. It was also able to reverse the process of epithelial to mesenchymal transition, as indicated by specific changes in the proteins made by these cells, including the critical protein E-cadherin. Finally, PRP was also able to cause malignant cancer cells to transition to more harmless cell types, no longer cancerous. All three of these changes in cancer cells caused by PRP indicate that PRP may be highly effective in the treatment of metastatic cancers of many types. The results of these studies have been published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Cellular Oncology in July, 2013.
What makes these findings particularly important is that there are currently no FDA-approved drugs specifically targeting metastatic cancer, yet without metastasis, most cancers would not be serious or
fatal. Most chemical and radiological therapies for cancer are nonspecific, targeting all growing cells and therefore limiting their usefulness due to the inherent toxicity to normal cells. The demand for more targeted and less toxic drugs that specifically target metastasis is therefore enormous. Propanc has tremendous potential to change this market upon approval of PRP. It not only specifically targets metastatic cancer cells and the process of metastasis, it is composed of chemicals naturally occurring in the human body and therefore lacking intrinsic toxicity to humans. This means that PRP could be used in a very high dose range, as needed for maximum effectiveness. It would also be less likely to exhibit toxic interactions when used in combination with other drugs.
The anti-tumor action of PRP can also be enhanced through the use of adjuncts that further enhance the tumor-killing properties of PRP. The Propanc formulation PRP-DCM adds well-studied chemotherapeutic agents that help to starve tumors of oxygen and increase the rate at which they undergo cell death.
Propanc is a forward-looking company that seeks to answer the large and growing demand for affordable, accessible, and easy to administer anti-cancer therapies. Propanc has developed a targeted anticancer therapeutic with the potential to extend survival among those patients with more advanced forms of cancer involving metastasis; currently, there are no drugs approved for the targeting of metastatic cancer, placing Propanc in a strong position as the regulatory process moves forward.
As a sector of the anti-cancer market, drugs targeting metastasis have not yet matured, and investors are not yet aware of its central importance for cancer therapy and its growth potential. Therefore, Propanc is currently likely to be highly undervalued as an investment.
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