"Tumor growth was inhibited and the tumors began to reduce in size until they disappeared," Giordano said.
Giordano said because of the intrinsic nature of the compound, it can be easily reproduced as a biological drug in large quantities and does not require potentially dangerous means of delivery like viruses, as do most gene therapies; therefore Spa310 has a good chance to succeed as an anti-cancer therapy. For these reasons, he believes it may be easier to get approval for clinical trials.
"Fifteen years after discovering Rb2/p130, our research and hard work has led us to the discovery of this small molecule, which is a step forward in cancer research and a big step toward a cancer treatment," he said.