Preview Mode Links will not work in preview mode
Welcome to the Empowered Patient Podcast with Karen Jagoda.  This show offers a glimpse into the latest innovations in applying generative AI, novel therapeutics and vaccines, and the evolving dynamics in the medical and healthcare landscape. One focus is on how providers, pharmaceutical companies, and payers are empowering patients.  In addition, conversations often focus on how technology is empowering providers, care facilities, pharmaceutical companies, and payers to improve patient outcomes and reduce friction across the healthcare landscape.  Popular Topics Include: Virtual and digital health Use of AI, ML, and robots for clinical and administrative purposes  Value-based healthcare  Precision and stratified medicine Next-generation immuno, cell, and gene therapies Vaccines for infectious diseases and oncology Biomarkers and diagnostics Rare diseases MedTech and medical devices Clinical trials  Population health Chronic conditions l Clinician and staff burnout Smart hospitals The audience includes life science leaders, researchers, medical professionals, patient advocates, digital health entrepreneurs, patients, caregivers, healthcare solution providers, students, journalists, and investors.

Oct 13, 2025

Jeff Glazier, CEO of General Oncology, is taking a unique approach to treating cancer by using older chemotherapy drugs with broad action but in novel combinations designed to avoid the incidental toxicity.  Their primary drug in trials is GO-4 which is focused on shutting down DNA repair in cancer cells to overcome drug resistance.  While testing in patients with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, this approach was designed to combat tumor heterogeneity by targeting fundamental processes like proliferation that are common to all cancer cells within a tumor.

Jeff explains, "We're actually taking a different approach than a lot of companies are. And I would say there are really two approaches because we have two different things on, we have a clinical trial right now where we're using old chemotherapy drugs in a new way, and when you combine them together, you really get just a different result. We're trying to shut down DNA repair and kill cancer cells. But the other really interesting thing, and I think it’s underlying general vision, is chemotherapy drugs long ago had very broad action, and with broad action comes unwanted incidental toxicity. And over the years, it's been huge in the industry, or moving towards specific drugs that target specific things and have less incidental toxicity. The unfortunate side effect is that cancer cells can evolve around a drug if there's too much specificity. So we're taking a pretty novel approach with our business of going after drugs that have broad action, but we found a way, we believe, to do it in a way that doesn't have incidental toxicity."

"I certainly feel that you want to have more than one attack. If you only do one, the cancer cells can evolve around it. The drug resistance approach I was referring to was what we call GO-4 in our clinical trial, and we're altering part of the cancer cells’ fundamental biology that is involved in DNA repair and shutting it down. But we're doing it in more than one way."  

#GeneralOncology #PancreaticCancer #CancerAwareness #MetastaticCancer #GO4Therapy #CancerResearch #InnovativeTherapies #DrugDevelopment

generaloncology.com

Download the transcript here

General Oncology