TAS-108, also known as SR-16234, is a drug discovered by
Masato Tanabe and under development by
SRI International
SRI International (SRI) is an American nonprofit scientific research institute and organization headquartered in Menlo Park, California. The trustees of Stanford University established SRI in 1946 as a center of innovation to support economic ...
and
Taiho Pharmaceutical
is a Japanese pharmaceutical company, and a subsidiary of Otsuka Holdings, which focuses on developing cancer treatments. Taiho, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is an R&D-driven specialty pharma focusing on the three fields of oncology, allerg ...
. It is a
steroid hormone
A steroid hormone is a steroid that acts as a hormone. Steroid hormones can be grouped into two classes: corticosteroids (typically made in the adrenal cortex, hence ''cortico-'') and sex steroids (typically made in the gonads or placenta). Withi ...
that has shown signs of treating and preventing
breast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or a r ...
, even in patients where
tamoxifen
Tamoxifen, sold under the brand name Nolvadex among others, is a selective estrogen receptor modulator used to prevent breast cancer in women and treat breast cancer in women and men. It is also being studied for other types of cancer. It has b ...
has failed.
Development
Masato Tanabe's team at SRI has focused on the development of steroid hormones. A compound discovered in a previous SRI contract from the
National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...
showed potential – it acted like "anti-estrogen" in the breasts and uterus but like normal estrogen elsewhere in the body, and was more "tissue-selective".
A contract was proposed to
Taiho Pharmaceutical
is a Japanese pharmaceutical company, and a subsidiary of Otsuka Holdings, which focuses on developing cancer treatments. Taiho, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is an R&D-driven specialty pharma focusing on the three fields of oncology, allerg ...
in July 1996, and within six years and slightly under $3 million (an unusually short amount of time), two new drugs were discovered and tested on people (particularly people for which
tamoxifen
Tamoxifen, sold under the brand name Nolvadex among others, is a selective estrogen receptor modulator used to prevent breast cancer in women and treat breast cancer in women and men. It is also being studied for other types of cancer. It has b ...
has failed): SR-16234 and SR-16287.
The first of those, SR-16234, also inhibited the growth of blood vessels
angiogenesis and accelerated the death of cancer cells
apoptosis and thus was particularly well suited to be an anti-cancer drug.
As of August 2010, the drug had been through five Phase I and two Phase II studies,
and Phase III studies are being planned.
See also
*
Cytestrol acetate
*
Fulvestrant
Fulvestrant, sold under the brand name Faslodex among others, is a medication used to treat hormone receptor (HR)-positive metastatic breast cancer in postmenopausal women with disease progression as well as HR-positive, HER2-negative advanced br ...
*
ICI-164384
References
External links
SR-16234 (TAS-108) - AdisInsight*
{{Estrogen receptor modulators
Antiestrogens
Estranes
Experimental cancer drugs
SRI International
Taiho Pharmaceutical
Diethylamino compounds