$7.3 million grant to fund groundbreaking breast cancer clinical trial at VCU Massey Center

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- A $7.3 million grant will fund a groundbreaking breast cancer clinical trial at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center, health officials said.

A team of researchers received a $7.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to fund a "novel" clinical trial targeting metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), according to a Thursday release from the university.

“I look forward to successful outcomes from this trial, especially because we try to eliminate the cells that are the root cause of the origin of cancer and its spread in patients with TNBC,” Vekata Lokesh Battula said.

Battula joined Massey as its assistant director of Cancer Research Training and Education Coordination (CRTEC) Efforts and professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the VCU School of Medicine and spearheaded the basis for the grand and clinical trial while doing preclinical studies at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

Batulla's team's work at the MD Anderson Cancer Center -- which laid the groundwork for the trial -- helped identify GD2, which is "expressed on cancer stem cells that contribute to cell proliferation and metastasis and correlate with worse patient outcomes," a release reads.

The trial will test the safety and effectiveness of combining naxitamab, an antibody directed against GD2, and sacituzumab govitecan, an FDA-approved chemotherapy-based treatment used in metastatic TNBC.

VCU officials said that if this trial is successful, it could pave the way for more "durable responses in patients with metastatic TNBC."

“We have found that GD2, a surface marker, is overexpressed in more than half of TNBC tumors," Battula said. Our data indicate that GD2-expressing TNBC cells could be targeted using anti-GD2 monoclonal antibodies. Our studies have identified a novel therapeutic strategy to identify and eliminate these treatment-resistant cancer stem cells. In targeting GD2 with naxitamab, we are hoping to eradicate the root cause of resistance and boost the long-term effectiveness of sacituzumab govitecan.”

MD Anderson will open and enroll patients in the clinical trial, led by Batulla and Clinton Yam, associate professor of Breast Medical Oncology at MD Anderson. VCU will then analyze research specimens collected from enrolled patients.