Theralase Technologies (TSX: V.TLT, Stock Forum) had reason to break out the champagne today when the company announced preliminary results from the use of Photo Dynamic Therapy (“PDT”) to destroy bladder cancer in an orthotopic (“occurring at the normal place in the body”) rat model.
According to the news release, the University of Toledo along with the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network and Theralase carried out the experiment in a well-established orthotopic model for bladder cancer in rats.
Results from the experiment showed that from visual inspection, TLD1433 appeared to localize to specific regions of the bladder, indicating an accumulation in the damaged and tumor urothelium with areas of tumor necrosis spotted in the treated bladders.
All of this suggested that TLD1433 used with visible red laser light has the potential to induce urothelial tumor destruction with an exceptionally high margin of safety for the subject.
The company will continue to evaluate these preliminary experiments for further confirmation that laser light activated TLD1433 creates exacting tumor necrosis while preserving the normal bladder wall, sparing the surrounding urothelium. As a result, this treatment may offer versatility beyond what is available today with traditional bladder cancer treatment methodologies.
TLD1433 is undergoing the final stages of pre-clinical optimization in preparation for a Health Canada and FDA human Phase I / IIa clinical study for this new class of PDCs in 2015.
Chair and Professor of Urology and Director of Urological Research, University of Toledo, Steve Selman, MD, FACS, commented on the results, “I am pleased to report that this preliminary study warrants further evaluation of the Theralase PDCs in their ability to localize to compromised urothelium and when laser light activated destroy the bladder cancer tumours via necrosis. This is early research, with non- optimized doses of PDC and laser light sources, but it is encouraging. Further evaluation with additional treated and control animals, along with additional blinded histopathological analysis will more definitely support these initial finding and provide us the scientific rigour required to strongly support out initial clinical findings.”
Roger Dumoulin-White, company President and CEO, added, “I am elated that Theralase is able to report the successful achievement of this very significant milestone in our ongoing collaborative research and development program for our state-of-the-art PDC technology.”
He went on to explain,”It has always been Theralase's strategic milestone to prove the safety and efficacy of our PDC technology in an orthotopic rat model to provide our shareholders and investors the assurance that our technology has been validated to be safe and effective in animals prior to the Theralase team turning their attention to evaluating this technology in a human clinical study.”
Then he summed up, “I am proud to be associated with such a strong scientific and clinical team that was able to accomplish this very significant milestone. 2015 is going to be extremely exciting year for the Company.”
Theralase Technologies was in the news recently when the Toronto-based company announced a week ago that Brian C. Wilson had joined its Medical and Scientific Advisory Board.
Currently there are 84.8m outstanding shares with a market cap of $60.2 million.