Stand Up To Cancer? and Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc announce a three-year, $4 million research collaboration to explore new opportunities, including lurbinectedin in pediatric solid tumors and pan-RAF molecules in RAF- and RAS-mutated solid cancers. The collaboration also includes digital ethnography research to identify barriers to treatment and to gain insights and perspectives about small cell lung cancer (SCLC) from patients and caregivers in underserved communities.

The collaboration supports Stand Up To Cancer's efforts to accelerate the development of new treatments, and where appropriate, combination therapies for cancer patients through the Stand Up To Cancer Catalyst? program, which brings together industry and academic scientists in the cancer community. With an estimated 1.9 million new cancer cases diagnosed in the U.S. in 2021, innovative approaches that deliver new treatments to patients faster remain a key component of SU2C's mission. The SU2C Catalyst program was created specifically to encourage innovative and collaborative clinical translational research between academics and companies with an emphasis on speed and collaboration.

The collaboration between SU2C and Jazz will provide SU2C-funded researchers access to two Jazz molecules as well as funds to support one or more research projects over a three-year period. One of the potential projects would help SU2C scientists explore for the first time the possible clinical use of lurbinectedin in rare and hard to treat pediatric solid tumors. Lurbinectedin, commercialized by Jazz in the U.S. as Zepzelca?, received accelerated approval by the U.S. FDA in June 2020 for the treatment of adult patients with metastatic SCLC with disease progression on or after platinum-based chemotherapy. Early studies have demonstrated that the therapy, which works by inhibiting tumor growth and promoting eventual tumor cell death, may be useful in treating several advanced adult and pediatric cancers.

"While incredible progress has been made in advancing pediatric cancer research, critical unmet needs still exist; we cannot make children wait for treatments to be tested in adults first," said Sung Poblete, PhD, RN, CEO of Stand Up To Cancer. "SU2C started its Catalyst program to speed research of clinical compounds in both adults and children so that we can bring better treatments to patients quickly and save lives. Through this program, the Jazz-funded research offers exciting possibilities for childhood tumors as well as adult solid cancers that desperately need new treatment options."