LIfT BioSciences has successfully secured initial funding into its potentially breakthrough Cell Therapy for Pancreatic Cancer. The funding has come from a Top 20 Major BioPharma Company, who for the time being wishes to remain anonymous.
The research aims to demonstrate that LIfT BioSciences Leukocyte Infusion Therapy (LIfT) can selectively destroy pancreatic cancer cell lines in-vitro, and to develop an assay that allows this Cancer Killing Activity (CKA) to be accurately monitored. If successful, LIfT BioSciences will move to testing other Cancer Cell types and with move its primary target, Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDAC) to first in-human Clinical Trials.
Professor Farzin Farzaneh D.Phil., FRCPath., FRSB, of King's College London is leading the research with LIfT BioSciences. Kings College London were partnered with LIfT BioSciences through the Medcity initiative to bring together SME’s with world leading London research institutions.
Appropriately selected leukocytes have already proven effective in-vitro for killing cervical and bladder cancer cells and in-vivo for eliminating prostate cancer and sarcoma in mice. The team are optimistic that similar results can be achieved in Pancreatic Cancer cells, as the first step in their mission to cure Pancreatic Cancer by 2021.
Currently 97% of Patients with Pancreatic Cancer will be dead within 5 years in the UK. Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has 4.6m median survival in the UK. Survival rates have remained largely unchanged for 40 years. (Source: Pancreatic Cancer Action).
Alex Blyth, CEO at LIfT BioSciences, commented that “the funding from a major Biopharma company like this is a real endorsement of the potential we all see in LIfT, and the very different approach to Cancer that we are taking by utilising the Innate Immune System to potentially cure Cancers. We are all very excited about what this could mean for patients”.