NeOnc Technologies
NeOnc Technologies

In the past several decades, we've seen medical innovations for just about every diagnosis. However, in the realm of brain cancer research — and especially glioblastoma research — treatment options have remained relatively static for decades. Thanks to NeOnc Technologies, that's hopefully about to change.

NeOnc was founded by Dr. Thomas Chen, Professor of Neurosurgery and Pathology and Director of Surgical Neuro-Oncology at the University of Southern California, and a foremost neurosurgeon.

"From the standpoint of the science and the medical need, I deal with patients with brain cancers like glioblastoma," Dr. Chen says. "Glioblastoma is a disease where we haven't had any significant improvement in survival time. The patients with glioblastoma still live about 15 to 18 months."

In his work with NeOnc Technologies, Dr. Chen is developing a new delivery system which is designed to help cancer drugs cross the blood-brain barrier. Historically, medical therapy for glioblastoma has been relatively ineffective. While medication is present in a patient's blood, most of it is kept away from the brain tumor by the blood-brain barrier.

"The blood-brain barrier keeps various pathogens away from our brain," Dr. Chen explains. "It's used to keep compounds that may have entered our circulation away from the brain. But in the case of brain cancer, where the disease is in the brain, we're trying to get drugs or other biologics to the target, and the blood-brain barrier's preventing that."

One might think that Dr. Chen's drug delivery solution would be so complex that the average person would have trouble understanding it. However, the delivery system he created for NeOnc is deceptively simple — it's a nasal spray.

"We're developing therapies with the potential of bypassing the blood-brain barrier by doing what we call nasal-brain delivery," Dr. Chen explains. "The idea is that you're inhaling the compound and letting your cranial nerves deliver the drug to the brain."

Specifically, Dr. Chen is developing a system inspired by our sense of smell. "In our brain, we have 12 cranial nerves. And the first cranial nerve is called olfactory nerve, and that's the nerve that we inhale from," he says. "The olfactory nerve is very effective for delivering different substances to the brain. We recognize smell because we inhale it, it gets absorbed by the olfactory nerve, and then it's conducted to our temporal lobe, where essentially we process it and say, 'Oh, I recognize that scent.'"

Dr. Chen's development-stage delivery system has the goal of delivering the molecules of cancer drugs to the brain just like scent molecules. "In our clinical trials, we're essentially having the patient inhale the treatment, and it goes directly from the olfactory nerve, and it gets circulated via the spinal fluid into the brain," he says.

For patients suffering from terminal cancer, traveling to the hospital for treatments can be draining, but the hope is that nasal-brain delivery will help eliminate that additional stress.

"The protocol is that patients treat it four times a day, and they have a nasal nebulizer, which they basically place on their nose," Dr. Chen says. "And it's a 20-minute treatment at a time, and they just do the treatment at home."

Convenience and comfort are important features of the new technology. The delivery system is still in the trial phase, but all trials are enrolling humans and showing promising results.

"These are people that are dying, so it's not a double-blind test," Dr. Chen notes. "The results look good so far. Let's put it this way: we are prolonging lives, but we have had a couple of patients where essentially their tumors went away on MRI scan, and we're still following these patients. We also had three patients that were doing this treatment, and they were alive for three to four years after treatment. That is almost unheard of for somebody that's supposed to die after six to eight months."

Given the potential of the nasal-brain delivery method, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has designated the trial process with Fast Track status. "We do have a Fast Track Designation," says Amir F. Heshmatpour, Board Director of NeOnc. "This means that once we complete Phase 2A, it is likely the FDA will request a Phase 2B trial involving approximately 70 patients. Assuming successful completion of these trials, we will apply to the FDA for the possibility of bringing the drug to market."

The FDA Fast Track designation is designed to expedite the review and approval process for drugs that address serious conditions and unmet medical needs.

If trials continue to progress as planned, more patients may have access to potentially life-saving treatments. The delivery system has already shown promise in clinical trials, and NeOnc is advancing a new platform specifically targeting pediatric brain cancer, which is now in its early trial phases. The Company believes that this potentially represents a significant step forward in the fight against glioblastoma, with the potential of offering renewed hope to patients and their families.