Shares in cancer treatment developer Novogen have soared after it announced that one of its drugs could help destroy a cancer cell's "skeleton".
Novogen says the development of its anti-cancer drug Anisina has reached a major milestone.
A proof-of-concept study has shown that Anisina, in combination with other drugs used in chemotherapy, can destroy a cancer cell's cytoskeleton and deliver a powerful anti-cancer effect in animal models.
This could lead to a more effective treatment for some cancers and lower dosages of some drugs when treating cancer in children.
"Its (Anisina's) promise lies in its ability to make the most widely-used chemotherapy drugs work better and safer in more forms of cancer and in more patients," Novogen chief executive Dr Graham Kelly said on Wednesday.
"Our objective is to see Anisina become one of the most widely used drugs in chemotherapy."
Shares in Novogen had jumped 3.5 cents, or 20.59 per cent, to 20.5 cents on the news.
Novogen said the results from the proof-of-concept study represented a crucial step in bringing Anisina towards clinical trials in 2016.
The most commonly used drugs used in chemotherapy target the cancer cell's cytoskeleton - the cell's skeletal structure.
The drugs, called anti-mitotics, destabilise one of the cytoskeleton's two key components, the microtubules, but leave the other major component, the microfilaments, intact.
This incomplete destruction of the cytoskeleton resulted in a low rate of patient response for many tumour types and in a generally short-term response to therapy.
Anisina has been developed specifically to destroy the microfilaments and to work in combination with the anti-mitotic drugs to comprehensively destroy the cancer cell's cytoskeleton.
Novogen will be looking to use Anisina to boost treatment of cancers such as prostate, ovarian, lung, breast, colorectal and haematological cancers, and cancers such as melanoma where anti-mitotics currently show little benefit.
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