Cancer patients are commonly treated by external beam radiation therapy. In this approach only well defined cancers with known locations can be treated adequately. In the process healthy tissues are also damaged and significant adverse side effects occur. Radiopharmaceuticals are agents that can transport radiotoxic doses of radionuclides to tumors and metastatic sites. The compounds licensed by Calidum Inc. have dual targeting mechanisms which direct them to cancer cells via active transport mechanisms and then within the cancer cells the drugs are targeted to the DNA of the cancer cell to destroy it. This virtually eliminates any effects on non-cancer tissues, reducing toxicity and providing therapy while maintaining the patient’s quality of life. Calidum’s drugs are unique and truly “theranostic” (therapeutic/diagnostic) in that they can be used with diagnostic imaging radionuclides for SPECT and PET imaging to identify where the cancer is and get an accurate measure of the rate at which it grows. The same drugs are then used with therapeutic radionuclides to destroy the cancer. These are only some of the factors that differentiate our technology from what is available to patients today.
OUR TECHNOLOGY
Calidum’s technologies provide compelling differentiation:
- are diagnostic as well as therapeutic
- allow concomitant detection of tumors and assessment of their aggressiveness
- can help distinguish indolent from progressive disease
- are radiotoxic only to cells that express the targeted receptor and make DNA when RTDT is present
- kill multidrug resistant and radioresistant cancer cells
- are non-immunogenic allowing repeated dosing
- are administered at extremely low doses of nanograms per kg body weight guaranteeing minimal pharmacologic toxicities
- can be used as adjuvants without increasing overall toxicity of the primary treatment
- have the lock-in-mechanism that traps RTDT in targeted cancer cells
- are compatible with the individualized treatment strategy that uses diagnostic imaging to identify cancer patients that may benefit from molecular radiotherapy
- FDA-approved IND application available for testing in the context of prostate cancer
