Development of Localized Therapies for Cancer

Laird Forrest, PhD
Pharmaceutical Chemistry
University of Kansas School of Pharmacy

Host: Glen Kwon

Traditional cytotoxic chemotherapy’s safety and efficacy are limited by the tendency of these drugs to widely distribute throughout the body. Our work utilizes the hijacked “plumbing” of tumors to concentrate anti-cytotoxins in the cancer, while limiting exposure in other tissues. We have combined this approach with new therapeutics that engage and activate the immune system, working synergistically to treat tumors with minimum toxicity. While rodents are the de facto standard in pre-clinical drug development, they have many short-comings in modeling human cancers. Thus, we have carried this approach into multiple on-going veterinary clinical trials to treat spontaneously occurring cancers in dogs.