Grant Recipients 2025
Professor Michelle Haber and Professor Murray Norris.
Research Project
Professor Michelle Haber’s and Professor Murray Norris’s team at Children’s Cancer Institute discovered that a drug called DFMO was much more effective at killing neuroblastoma cells with the addition of a polyamine uptake inhibitor called AMXT 1501 (developed by Aminex Therapeutics). Should their promising pre-clinical research be successful, potentially new treatments can be developed for this devastating disease and improve survival rates for children with hard-to-treat relapsed neuroblastomas.
Exciting breakthrough with a combination drug therapy
Neuroblastoma Australia has agreed to support research into the drug DFMO conducted by Children’s Cancer Institute (CCI) . DFMO has been in clinical trial for a number of years and has shown it can affect neuroblastoma tumours.
The Team at CCI found that if DFMO were combined with a polyamine inhibitor, the drug becomes far more powerful in killing neuroblastoma cells. Polyamines are molecules which fuel the rapid growth of neuroblastoma cells. As a result of their world-class research, a new trial testing this combination will be started in 2022. There is a strong rationale that this could ultimately lead to the development of potentially new treatments for this devastating disease and improve survival rates for children with hard-to-treat relapsed neuroblastomas.
As part of this research, any potential toxicity resulting from the DFMO and AMXT1501 combination is being assessed to ensure there would be no issues in using this as a treatment in children.
