ZYMERON CORPORATION — Department of Health and Human Services SBIR Phase I: NCI

Description

Colorectal Cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer both in men and women, as well as the second leading cause of cancer deaths with an estimated 135,430 new cases diagnosed and 50,260 deaths for 2017 in the United States. Given the limitations of screening tests and poor prognosis associated with advanced stage colorectal cancer, it would be of great interest in exploring chemoprevention strategies to reduce the incidence and mortality of this preventable malignancy. U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has recommended routine aspirin use among those aged between 50 and 69 with specific cardiovascular risk profiles for CRC prevention. The widespread use of ASA solely for CRC prevention has been limited due to its systemic exposure and toxicity of routine use of immediate release (IR) aspirin tablets. It is worth mentioning that even enteric coated aspirin causes gastric side effects as plain (non-coated) ASA tablets do. Zymeron proposes to develop a targeted delivery approach which reduces the systemic exposure to ASA and increases its selective accumulation in target colon tissues as an effective strategy for more widespread use of ASA as a chemopreventive agent of CRC.