Novel therapies are urgently needed for pancreatic cancer (PDAC) and triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), two of the most aggressive cancers with no effective cure. For PDAC, 4420 Texans and 60,000 Americans are diagnosed each year and only 7% are expected to survive 5 years. TNBC is also aggressive, affecting 3000 women in Texas and 42,000 in the US annually, with a disproportionate impact on African American and Hispanic women. Stellanova's co-founders have demonstrated that cells in the tumor microenvironment of PDAC and TNBC produce Dickkopf-3 (DKK3) that acts on neighboring cancer cells to stimulate their growth, metastasis and resistance to standard therapy. We have developed novel an...

Read More

Novel therapies are urgently needed for pancreatic cancer (PDAC) and triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), two of the most aggressive cancers with no effective cure. For PDAC, 4420 Texans and 60,000 Americans are diagnosed each year and only 7% are expected to survive 5 years. TNBC is also aggressive, affecting 3000 women in Texas and 42,000 in the US annually, with a disproportionate impact on African American and Hispanic women. Stellanova's co-founders have demonstrated that cells in the tumor microenvironment of PDAC and TNBC produce Dickkopf-3 (DKK3) that acts on neighboring cancer cells to stimulate their growth, metastasis and resistance to standard therapy. We have developed novel antibodies to block DKK3 (anti-DKK3 mAb) which inhibited tumor growth in mice and produced long-term survival with no toxicity. For TNBC, treatment also reduced lung and brain metastases. Anti-DKK3 mAb is effective either alone or in combination with immunotherapy, thus avoiding chemotherapy and its toxicities. Stellanova has assembled a team of experts who have a proven track record in cancer drug development and fundraising. Completion of this project is critical to achieving our overall goal of developing a DKK3-targeted antibody for a first-in-human clinical trial for patients with PDAC, TNBC and potentially other cancers. Given the lack of effective therapies for these diseases, the successful development of DKK3-targeted therapy has the potential to be practice-changing for the field.

Read Less