A new clinical trial has started for breast cancer patients that has the potential to validate an innovative therapeutic treatment. And a publicly traded company is behind it.

‍What’s happening:‍

  • Atossa Therapeutics (NASDAQ: ATOS) has officially dosed their first patient in their clinical trial partnership with Quantum Leap Healthcare Collaborative which is aiming to validate Atossa’s proprietary (Z)-Endoxifen drug in combination with Abemaciclib for breast cancer treatment

Why it matters:‍

  • The study is focused on breast cancer patients with newly diagnosed estrogen receptor-positive invasive breast cancer whose tumours are expected to be sensitive to endocrine therapy but are very unlikely to experience any benefit at all from traditional chemotherapy
  • Atossa Therapeutics proprietary (Z)-Endoxifen could represent a potential breakthrough for a new drug treatment that is both effective and safe for these specific types of breast cancer patients

By the numbers:‍

  • The study will have 80 individual participants, separated across 2 different patient cohorts
  • Both cohorts of women will be dosed with 80mg of (Z)-Endoxifen once daily and 150mg of Abemaciclib twice daily for 24 weeks prior to surgery

Going deeper:‍

  • Atossa Therapeutics is collaborating with Quantum Leap Healthcare Collaborative on the new clinical trial, who is a leading edge cancer charity that was originally formed by medical researchers at the University of California, San Francisco and Silicon Valley technology entrepreneurs
  • Because patients who are diagnosed with estrogen receptor-positive invasive breast cancer typically do not respond well to chemotherapy or immunotherapy, there is a large clinical risk for patients as well as a significant unmet medical need that does not currently have many approved therapeutic treatment options that have proven to be effective and safe

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