Cancer care advances through UAB research and AdvanCell radiopharmaceutical development
UAB researchers are advancing cancer prevention, tumor targeting and precision ablation, while AdvanCell is developing targeted alpha therapy and a prostate cancer drug in Phase 1 trials. Both efforts focus on new treatment approaches and research infrastructure.
Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham are advancing cancer prevention and treatment through lifestyle science, molecular targeting and biomedical engineering. AdvanCell is a radiopharmaceutical company developing Targeted Alpha Therapy, and it has created a drug for prostate cancer that has shown exciting promise in Phase 1 clinical trials.
According to Wendy Demark-Wahnefried, prevention does not stop at remission. Some 71 percent of cancer survivors are overweight, and with 13 cancers linked to obesity, excess weight can significantly raise the risk of recurrence or developing a second cancer, in some cases by 10 percent to 580 percent. To address that risk, Demark-Wahnefried and her team developed AMPLIFY or AiM, Plan and act on LIFestYles, a comprehensive web-based lifestyle intervention for survivors.
The program delivers weekly interactive sessions focusing on nutrition, physical activity and weight management. It includes tailored meal plans, grocery lists, food preparation videos and strength training guidance. The program is personalized and able to meet users where they are.
Benjamin Larimer is developing a therapy designed to counter tumor resistance. His team engineered nanobodies that bind to surface calreticulin and deliver therapeutic payloads. As treatment kills tumor cells, more calreticulin is exposed, which creates a cycle that increases the percentage of targetable cells.
S. Abdollah Mirbozorgi focuses on improving how tumors are physically destroyed. His approach uses alternating cycles of heating and cooling to limit how far thermal energy spreads. In addition, ultrasound beam-forming technology allows the teams to steer thermal energy toward specific regions of the tumor, and an ultra-wideband sensing antenna provides real-time feedback by detecting changes in tissue properties during treatment.
Together, these components create a closed-loop precision ablation system designed to better protect healthy tissue, a critical need in areas like the brain, where even small amounts of collateral damage can affect speech, vision or mobility.
AdvanCell said it has created a brand-new manufacturing technology that has now been proven on a clinical scale, and that it is now manufacturing doses every day for patients. The company said the clinical efficacy of radiopharmaceuticals has been demonstrated, and that this ability to add a radioactive atom to a targeting ligand has the potential to make differences to the lives of patients in breast cancer, lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, and many, many more.
The University ecosystems, and AIBN in particular, have played a role in the development of this new drug to treat prostate cancer, supporting AdvanCell with research infrastructure and expertise. AdvanCell said it now has a broad portfolio in development to treat other cancers including melanoma, ovarian, lung, breast and pancreatic cancers.