RCSI and Inflection Biosciences Ltd, a private company developing innovative therapeutics for cancer, today announced a research collaboration that aims to understand why there can be resistance to major breast cancer therapies and examine potential new treatments by Inflection Biosciences for patients with a cancer that does not respond effectively to existing therapies.

The potential new treatments (dual mechanism PIM/PI3K inhibitors) are novel molecules that work by blocking two abnormal proteins that occur in breast cancer, known as PIM and PI3K. One in nine Irish women will get breast cancer at some point in their lives. Recent improvements in treatment and diagnosis mean that many more women now survive the disease. Unfortunately, current treatments have no effect in up to 20 per cent of patients and where treatment does work, many patients relapse as treatment resistance emerges.

The research team at RCSI is led by Professor Bryan Hennessy, Senior Clinical Lecturer at RCSI, Consultant Medical Oncologist in Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, and Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, and Adjunct Professor in the Division of Cancer Medicine at MD Anderson Cancer Centre (MDACC). Prof. Hennessy is also Clinical Lead at Cancer Trials Ireland.

Speaking at today’s announcement, Prof. Hennessy said: “I am excited about exploring the potential use of these novel molecules in the treatment of cancer, especially breast cancer, given that they will target the abnormal proteins, PIM and PI3K, which play an important role in therapy-resistant forms of this disease. The early results have shown this treatment approach to be effective in breast cancer cells that have become resistant to standard of care treatments.”

Dr Michael O’Neill, Director of Research and Development at Inflection Biosciences added: “Our dual acting molecules are able to treat cancer cells by targeting both PIM and PI3K pathways. This makes our compound more effective than compounds which attack either cancer pathway alone. We are delighted to have Professor Hennessy and the team at RCSI involved in this important research and their expertise will be of great benefit as we continue to develop these important treatments.”

Director of Research and Innovation at RCSI, Professor Ray Stallings, welcomed the announcement saying: "RCSI is delighted to announce this collaboration with Inflection Biosciences. RCSI's research strategy has a strong focus on excellence in translational research for the benefit of patients and healthcare systems. This partnership exemplifies how collaboration between academia and industry can help improve human health through high quality, impactful scientific research."

The collaboration has been supported by an Enterprise Ireland Innovation Voucher.