Race Oncology Ltd (ASX:RAC, OTC:RAONF) has appointed distinguished oncologist professor Daniel Von Hoff to its Clinical Advisory Board to advise on the clinical development of RC220 bisantrene.
Dr Von Hoff is a world-leading expert in early clinical trials and translational research with extensive personal clinical experience using bisantrene.
During his early career, he worked with the original developers of bisantrene, Lederle Laboratories, in the design and execution of the clinical studies of bisantrene.
He has authored more than 10 publications on bisantrene, including the Phase 3 breast cancer study where bisantrene was compared to doxorubicin and mitoxantrone.
Considerable experience
Dr Daniel D Von Hoff, M.D., F.A.C.P. FASCO, FAACR, is an eminent physician and is the executive vice president of the Molecular Medicine Divisions and distinguished professor at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) in Phoenix, Arizona, and City of Hope.
He also holds the Virginia G Piper Distinguished Chair for Innovative Cancer Research at Honor Health Clinical Research Institute and Professorship of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic.
Dr Von Hoff is a pioneering world leader in translational medicine, accelerating novel drug discoveries from the laboratory to cancer treatments in clinical trials, where he has been involved in more than 300 clinical studies. His major interest is in the development of new anticancer agents, both in the clinic and in the laboratory.
He and his colleagues have contributed to the development of many US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved pharmaceuticals in routine use, including mitoxantrone, fludarabine, paclitaxel, docetaxel, gemcitabine, irinotecan, nelarabine, capecitabine, lapatinib, vismodegib, nab-paclitaxel, nal-IRI and pexidartinib.
Dr Von Hoff has a strong interest in early-phase clinical trials where he and his colleagues are focused on developing novel therapies for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer.
Race CEO Dr Daniel Tillett said: “To attract the interest of a clinical researcher of the international calibre of Professor Von Hoff to counsel Race is humbling. I have no doubt that his expertise and experience will accelerate our clinical and commercial development of RC220 bisantrene.”
Highly regarded
Professor Von Hoff received the 2010 David A. Karnofsky Memorial Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) for his outstanding contributions to cancer research leading to significant improvement in patient care, and he was named one of the ASCO 50 Oncology Luminaries in 2014.
He has published more than 795 papers, 143 book chapters, over 1,195 abstracts with an h-index of 127.
Most recently, he received the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) Distinguished Public Service Award in recognition of his extraordinary clinical research career and leadership in establishing the AACR/ASCO Methods in Clinical Cancer Research Workshop to educate and train young clinical investigators.
Von Hoff said: “I am very pleased to be joining the Race Oncology team as an advisor to help in the further development of the reformulated bisantrene (RC220). It is great to see this important follow-up on a molecule which has previously demonstrated clinical activity against leukaemia and solid cancers.”