Propanc Biopharma, Inc. announced that the Company's lead product candidate, PRP, could enhance the effects of novel therapies like immune checkpoint inhibitors that can have a role in pancreatic cancer treatment. Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder, Dr. Julian Kenyon MD, MB, ChB, predicts therapies can enhance the patient's immune response to fight solid tumors by enabling detection of specific tumor cells within the body that were previously undetected. For example, once considered a “non-immunogenic” cancer, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) has been identified with upregulated immune networks and immune checkpoint molecule expression in its tumor microenvironment and is now redefined as an immunogenic cancer, according to the World Journal of Gastroenterology, November 21, 2016.

PDA is a highly aggressive malignancy, characterized by delayed diagnosis and treatment resistance. At the time of clinical detection, most PDA cancers are either advanced locally, or metastatic, i.e., ineligible for surgical resection and with a typical five-year survival in the single digits. One of the reasons for the poor effect of treatment is the ability of PDA to evade host immune surveillance.

The tumor microenvironment of PDA is composed of a dense fibrotic stroma of extracellular (outside cell) matrix components and a variety of inflammatory cells. PRP was recently reported as having a significant impact on the tumor microenvironment by impact inhibiting, slowing, or reversing tumor development through acting as an anti-tumor agent, decreasing tumor cell proliferation, developing a non-malignant phenotype (observable characteristics) and promoting cell adhesion (sticking close to one another) and differentiation (cell specialization rather than stem cell-like). To accomplish this, PRP targets specific pathways like TGFß, critical for tumor development and prevention of immunorecognition by the body's own immune system.

Furthermore, numerous pathways affected downstream are also impacted by altering the tumor surface, which is often resistant to immune regulators due to the impenetrability of the tumor walls. PRP is a mixture of two proenzymes, trypsinogen and chymotrypsinogen from bovine pancreas, administered by intravenous injection. A synergistic ratio of 1:6 inhibits growth of most tumor cells.

Examples include kidney, ovarian, breast, brain, prostate, colorectal, lung, liver, uterine and skin cancers.