CerRx, Inc. is a west Texas-based company developing a new drug for treating cancer with better effectiveness and fewer side-effects than current treatments. CerRx’s lead drug candidate, intravenous (IV) fenretinide, has been shown in human clinical trials to be particularly effective in treating T-cell lymphomas (in some cases completely abolishing the cancers), while having fewer side-effects than other drug used for treating such tumors. CerRx has one currently open clinical trial to further test IV fenretinide on one type of T-cell lymphoma, peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL), a cancer than can case tumors to form anywhere in the body.

CerRx is now proposing to conduct a similar clinical t...

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CerRx, Inc. is a west Texas-based company developing a new drug for treating cancer with better effectiveness and fewer side-effects than current treatments. CerRx’s lead drug candidate, intravenous (IV) fenretinide, has been shown in human clinical trials to be particularly effective in treating T-cell lymphomas (in some cases completely abolishing the cancers), while having fewer side-effects than other drug used for treating such tumors. CerRx has one currently open clinical trial to further test IV fenretinide on one type of T-cell lymphoma, peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL), a cancer than can case tumors to form anywhere in the body.

CerRx is now proposing to conduct a similar clinical trial in the other major form of T-cell lymphoma, cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL). In CTCL tumors start in the skin, usually grow slowly at first, but then advance and spread to other parts of the body. Current drugs used to treat CTCL are usually effective at first, but most often lose that effectiveness as the disease progresses. In the US, 3,000 new cases of PTCL are diagnosed every year; one third of those will progress to advanced disease and one quarter will die of their cancer regardless of what therapies they receive. CerRx believes fenretinide has the potential to change the way CTCL is treated, and that the work proposed to CPRIT uniquely supports CPRIT’s mission to enhance innovation in cancer research and treatment and further Texas’ role in such innovation.

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