Selective targeting of CDK4 to improve breast and prostate cancer treatment

Professor Luke Selth

Flinders University, SA

$447,634

2025 - 2028

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The Research

Drugs called CDK4/6 inhibitors are widely used to treat women with advanced breast cancer. Although the approval of CDK4/6 inhibitors have improved patient outcomes, their efficacy is limited by high toxicity that causes harmful side-effects in many patients. Additionally, the toxicity of CDK4/6 inhibitors underlies a series of failed clinical trials in prostate cancer.

A less toxic CDK inhibitor that could be used at higher doses has the potential to transform treatment of both of these cancer types.

Our team has developed a new CDK inhibitor, AU2-94, which we hypothesise will be less toxic and more effective than currently-approved inhibitors because it selectively targets CDK4 and not CDK6. In this project, we will rigorously test the efficacy and safety of AU2-94, including comparing it to currently approved CDK4/6 inhibitors.

Successful outcomes would enable us to rapidly move into clinical trials to test AU2-94 in patients.