Amanda Balboni Iniguez, PhD (Damon Runyon-Sohn Fellow ’15-’19) and colleagues at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, reported that a class of cancer drugs called CDK inhibitors may be able to disarm a gene that causes Ewing sarcoma, the second most common form of bone tumor in young people. They showed in mouse models of Ewing sarcoma that CDK12 inhibitors could slow down tumor growth and extend life. This class of drugs was first developed in 2014 by Nathanael Gray, PhD (Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovator ’08-’10). Further studies showed that a CDK12 inhibitor combined with another drug, called a PARP inhibitor, could deliver a lethal punch, stopping the cancer. Even more promising, the drug combination had no toxic effect on the bone marrow of the mice. The study was published in the journal Cancer Cell.
