New cancers linked to abnormal hedgehog pathway signalling
A number of new reports presented at the recent annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research seem to have corroborated and expanded Curis' understanding of the linkage between abnormal Hedgehog pathway signalling and the development of various forms of cancer.
A number of new reports presented at the recent annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research seem to have corroborated and expanded Curis' understanding of the linkage between abnormal Hedgehog pathway signalling and the development of various forms of cancer.
Two reports presented at the conference for the first time linked the Hedgehog pathway to certain forms of liver cancer and cervical cancer.
Both reports suggested that inhibition of the Hedgehog pathway may be an attractive therapeutic target for the treatment of these cancers. The first of these reports: 'Hedgehog signalling in human hepatocellular cancer,' was presented by researchers from the University of California at San Francisco and the University of Hong Kong. The second report: 'Study of Hedgehog signalling in cervical cancer,' was authored by scientists from the University of Hong Kong and the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada.
Hepatocellular carcinoma accounts for 80-90% of all liver cancers. It occurs more often in men than women and mostly in people 50 to 60 years old. The American Cancer Society estimates that there are more than 17,000 new cases of liver cancer and more than 12,000 new cases of cervical cancer each year in the United States.
The conference also included a number of additional reports on abnormal Hedgehog pathway signalling that either corroborated earlier linkages to particular cancers or expanded our understanding of the potential disease mechanisms underlying those associations. These presentations included reports on Hedgehog pathway involvement in pancreatic cancer, breast cancer, esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, medulloblastoma, and basal cell carcinoma.
Daniel Passeri, Curis' president and ceo, said: 'The increasing number of new reports linking abnormal Hedgehog pathway signalling to the development of certain cancers provides a solid justification for the significant investment Curis has made in the development of technologies, including small molecule drug candidates, to block or inhibit this important pathway.'
About the Hedgehog signalling pathway
The Hedgehog signalling pathway is a regulatory mechanism used by the body to control the normal development and growth of stem cells and certain tissues systems. Numerous preclinical studies have linked abnormal expression of Hedgehog pathway signalling to the development of certain forms of cancer, including basal cell carcinoma, small cell lung cancer, medulloblastoma, pancreatic cancer, gastrointestinal cancers, and others cancers.