Lantern Pharma and Starlight Therapeutics Announce FDA Clearance of IND for a Planned Phase 1 Pediatric CNS Cancer Trial of STAR-001

We are thrilled to share some "Hot off the Press" news that brings a fresh wave of hope to our community. Lantern Pharma and Starlight Therapeutics have just received FDA clearance to begin a Phase 1 clinical trial for a promising new drug combination, STAR-001, specifically for pediatric patients with CNS tumors like ATRT.

What is this trial different?

🧬 The Double-Whammy Strategy: The trial tests a combination of STAR-001 and a common medication called spironolactone.

🧬 The "Synthetic Lethality" Approach: STAR-001 creates damage inside the cancer cell’s DNA. Normally, the cell tries to repair that damage to survive. Spironolactone acts as the "lock," breaking the cell's repair machinery so the cancer cannot fix itself.

🧬 Promising Preclinical Results: In laboratory models of ATRT, this specific combination extended survival by 181% compared to the control groups.

Who is involved?

This trial will be conducted through POETIC, a prestigious consortium of 14 leading children's cancer centers across the US, Canada, and Israel.

What this means for our families

As Lantern Pharma’s CEO, Panna Sharma, put it: For children with relapsed or refractory CNS tumors, the options are desperately limited — and the science behind this planned trial was built to change that."

This milestone represents a genuinely new way to attack these tumors by exploiting their biological vulnerabilities.

Check out the full press release: https://bit.ly/4sNLNqY