O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center Magazine Spring 2020 | страница 7

Gregory Friedman, M.D.
FRIEDMAN RECEIVES FUNDING FROM FDA FOR PEDIATRIC BRAIN TUMOR CLINICAL TRIAL
By Savannah Koplon
Gregory Friedman, M.D., has been awarded a threeyear,
$750,000 R01 grant from the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration for a Phase 1 immunotherapy clinical trial
of G207, a genetically engineered version of the coldsore
virus, for the treatment of malignant brain tumors in
children. Friedman is an associate professor in the UAB
Department of Pediatrics, a physician at Children’s of
Alabama and a scientist in the O’Neal Comprehensive
Cancer Center at UAB.
Friedman and his team have nearly completed a Phase
1 trial of G207 in pediatric high-grade gliomas and are
actively developing a Phase 2 clinical trial based on
the promising results they’ve seen so far. His lab data
indicates that pediatric tumors that arise in the back of
the brain, or cerebellum, such as medulloblastoma may
be even more sensitive to the viral immunotherapy than
high-grade gliomas.
This grant will help Friedman’s team conduct a new, firstin-human
Phase 1 study of G207 in recurrent tumors in
that area of the brain.
Standard therapies, such as chemotherapy and
radiation, are very damaging to a child’s developing
brain and are often ineffective. Viral immunotherapy
offers a potentially targeted, less toxic and more
effective approach. G207 is a herpes virus that has been
genetically altered so that it does not harm normal cells
but can infect and kill tumor cells.
When infused into a malignant brain tumor, the virus
enters tumor cells and replicates. It then kills the cells
and releases the virus’s progeny, or genetic descendants,
to infect and kill other tumor cells nearby. The virus also
induces a strong response from the body’s immune
system, which can then attack and kill the tumor,
potentially preventing tumor progression or recurrence.
The primary goal of this grant for Friedman and his
team is to demonstrate the safety and tolerability of
the treatment in children with malignant cerebellar
brain tumors. The grant is from the Orphan Products
Clinical Trials Grants Program, funded by Congress to
encourage clinical development of drugs, biologics,
medical devices and medical foods for the treatment of
rare diseases.
UAB.EDU/CANCER
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