Purdue research led to FDA-approved treatment of advanced prostate cancer

Research by a Purdue University chemistry professor is credited with leading to a new treatment that offers hope for patients with advanced prostate cancer.

The university says research by Philip Low, the Ralph C. Corley Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, laid the foundation for a targeted therapy that was approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

A Phase III study shows the treatment plus the normal standard of care had a 38% reduction in the risk of death compared with the standard of care alone. The treatment involves a radiotherapy that targets prostate cancer cells.

Brooke Beier, senior vice president of commercialization at the Purdue Research Foundation, said in a written statement that FDA approval of the therapy is one of the most meaningful approvals ever for a Purdue-related innovation.

“The Office of Technology Commercialization receives over 400 invention disclosures from researchers each year and licenses over 200 technologies annually,” she noted. “We continue to search for commercialization partners for these technologies and work closely with them to support their efforts to translate the technology to the market to improve the world.”

Low’s work on the therapy occurred at the Purdue Institute for Drug Discovery, which has 80 drugs in its development pipeline including 18 in active human clinical trials.

“I just feel blessed to have had an opportunity to work on meaningful projects throughout my career and even more blessed to have had an impact on one unnecessary source of pain and morbidity,” Low said in statement. “I suspect that almost everyone knows someone who has suffered with prostate cancer, and it has been very rewarding to finally be able to impact this horrible disease.”

Prostate cancer is the second-most common cancer among American men after non-melanoma skin cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.