Irish start-up Klas Therapeutics has pioneered the effective use of photodynamic therapy (PDT) for melanoma, a major medical breakthrough in the treatment of the most deadly of skin cancers.
Given the growing prevalence of skin cancers worldwide, it’s a solution that couldn’t have come at a better time.
Currently one in every three cancers diagnosed is a skin cancer, with between two and three million skin cancers diagnosed globally each year.
Not all skin cancers are the same, however. Around 325,000 of these are melanoma skin cancers. These are the most dangerous kind causing 57,000 deaths annually.
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According to the World Health Organisation, those most at risk have fair skin, blue, green or hazel eyes, light-coloured hair, and a tendency to burn rather than suntan. It includes people with freckles, many moles, and a history of severe burns.
What’s more, as the earth’s ozone levels are depleted, and the atmosphere loses more of its protective filter function, allowing more solar UV radiation to reach the earth’s surface, the risk increases, the WHO warns.
Good news for cancer patients and healthcare systems
That’s the bad news. The good news is that Klas Therapeutics, an Ulster University spin-out, headed up by a top team of academics and researchers, has developed ground-breaking technology with the potential to transform the prognosis for those diagnosed with melanoma skin cancers.
What’s more, it does so with minimal side effects and zero scarring. And the treatment is affordable.
The company’s pre-clinical data already shows how well this new technology, called Klas-PDT, after the peptide the company has focused on, works in a laboratory setting. It is now raising investment funds to take its discovery to the next stage - human studies.
Once brought to market the treatment could have a significant positive impact on patients living with melanoma, at a fraction of the cost of current skin cancer medications.
Dream team treatment
Company founder and chief scientific officer Prof. Bridgeen Callan, a professor of pharmaceutical sciences at Ulster University’s School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, believes Klas-PDT has the potential to address a major unmet clinical need in the treatment of patients with melanoma skin cancer.
That’s because, while the introduction of new generation immunotherapies and targeted therapies have resulted in what’s considered a paradigm shift in the treatment and management of malignant melanoma, the cost of these therapies is extremely high and, unfortunately, not all patients are responsive to them.
In other cases the impact of current treatments on the skin, gastrointestinal tract, liver, lungs and nerves can lead to side effects that are simply too harsh for the patient to bear, ultimately leading to a stop in treatment.
This is where Klas-PDT fits in.
Shining a light on skin cancer
PDT is a treatment that combines light-sensitive medicine with a light source to destroy abnormal cells. On its own each is harmless but when the medication is exposed to the light, it is activated, causing a reaction that damages nearby cells.
It is already widely used to treat some kinds of cancer, including skin cancer.
“PDT is US food and Drug administration approved for non-melanoma tumours but has so far proven to be ineffective against malignant melanoma due to the highly pigmented nature of these tumours, caused by melanin,” says Prof. Callan.
Until now.
The research team at Klas Therapeutics has seen dramatic results from its pre-clinical studies. “We have been working in oncology for a number of years, looking at various PDT cancer therapies,” she explains.
This particular innovation came about when her research team was developing an antimicrobial compound which they then tested on breast, prostate and skin cancer cells. It was in the latter that they made their big breakthrough.
By using their own peptide-based compound, which is now being patented, the results were astounding.
Clinical studies conducted show a 500 per cent tumour size reduction compared to PDT alone, and in vitro eradication of nearly 100 per cent of melanoma cells.
“We did not for a minute think the result would be as good as it is. It blew us away,” says Prof. Callan.
Adding to the arsenal in the fight against cancer
The treatment could be offered both as a standalone therapy with potentially minimal side effects, and to enhance the efficacy of existing therapy, says Prof. Callan, particularly where patients do not respond to newer immune or target therapies.
Currently treatment of melanoma can be very successful if caught early but both the side effects and the cost are significant.
Existing treatments include surgical removal but not all tumours are accessible, meaning large excision sites are required, leading to scarring and disfigurement. While immunotherapy and targeted therapy have been game changers in the treatment of skin cancer, not all patients are eligible due to the very high toxicities involved.
Now non-invasive PDT therapy can be used for the first time in the fight against malignant melanoma.
A growing target market
It’s a solution to a growing problem. Melanoma is the fifth most common cancer diagnosed and its incidence and mortality continues to grow. Despite representing less than five per cent of skin cancers, it accounts for approximately 75 per cent of skin-cancer related deaths.
The World Health Organisation predicts the number of new cases is set to rise to more than half a million a year by 2040.
“Melanoma cancer kills 57,000 people each year worldwide, and costs health services billions. While immune- and targeted therapies have revolutionised the management and treatment of melanoma, a massive unmet need still remains,” she explains.
The startup, won an Invent award in 2020 and has since been supported by Innovation Ulster, the technology transfer arm of Ulster University, and Invest NI, is currently raising pre-seed funding of GBP£1.7million to take it to its first clinical trial.
After that she plans to raise a further GBP£5million to GBP£7million to get the product ready for launch. “By that stage the larger pharmaceutical companies will be interested,” she explains.
The business case is compelling but so too is the human one. “We are not looking to replace current treatments. It’s about saying, let’s get as much armour as we can against this type of cancer,” she says.