New Drug Class Shows Promise in Melanoma

A new family of drugs was discovered that can help treat melanoma, a study published in Cancer Cell found.

Targeted therapies and immunotherapies have been used to treat metastatic melanoma, however most patients need further treatment to stop the tumor from coming back.

The newly discovered family of drugs called thiazole benzensulfonamides (TZB) have useful anticancer properties.

“Initially this family of drugs was identified in type 2 diabetes, as it increased the sensitivity of cells to insulin,” said lead researcher Stéphane Rocchi. “If we wanted to use it against cancer, we had to be able to eliminate this proinsulin activity. Thus we started to modify its structure.”

The experiment took numerous attempts, but researchers were able to extensively modify the initial TZD structure to obtain a formulation with the lead compound HA15.