Only where the gene is gone
In human tumour cells that still had a working SMAD4, blocking the two signals changed nothing we could measure. In cells that had lost it, the cells became far less resistant to chemotherapy.
SmadMinX
Stopping cancer from spreading
Stopping cancer from spreading
We are developing a targeted therapy to prevent metastasis after surgery
For people with cancer of the oesophagus, stomach, pancreas or bowel whose tumour lacks the gene SMAD4.
01 The problem
Most deaths come from the spreading, not from the first tumour.
Surgery can take the first tumour away. What takes lives is the spreading: cancer cells that travel through the body and grow into new tumours elsewhere.
02 What comes after
Four cancers
Surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy work on the first tumour. But once it has spread:
50 in 100live less than ten months.
People whose cancer had spread, across 13 cancer types: more than a million patients in the United States, 1992–2019. Those with cancer of the pancreas, the oesophagus or the stomach are among the most likely to die of it. Mani et al., Nature Communications, 2024.
03 What we do
Our aim: stop the spreading after surgery.
- SurgeryThe tumour is removed.
- Our drugTo be given after surgery.
- The aimKeep the cancer from spreading.
- Meant for tumours without SMAD4
- Tested in mice, not yet in people
Who it can help
15–30 in 100of these tumours have lost a gene called SMAD4. Depending on the cancer. Those are the tumours the antibody is made for.
The drug is the smallest working part of an antibody, a VHH. It blocks two signals, BMP2 and BMP4, which in a tumour that has lost SMAD4 are no longer held back. In 40 patients’ tumours we examined, 9 in 10 carried raised BMP2 or BMP4; eight of the 40 had lost SMAD4, and all eight carried raised levels.
04 What it does
In mice, the tumours grew more slowly.
Twenty-eight days of treatment, in mice carrying a human tumour that had lost SMAD4. The antibody on its own slowed growth against saline; together with chemotherapy it slowed further.
Tumour size at day 28
Saline≈ 970
Chemotherapy≈ 670
Our antibody≈ 480
Antibody + chemotherapy≈ 360–400
The mice kept their weight
Over the whole 28 days. Chemotherapy damaged the gut lining; adding the antibody did not make that worse.
It reached the tumour
Labelled antibody was at the tumour within half an hour, and could still be found there a day later. Three mice.
Results in mice, not in people. Published in Cellular Oncology in 2022 and free for anyone to read. Only studies in people can show whether it works in humans.
05 Where it stands
Almost twenty years of work. The next step is people.
Not a bright idea from last year. One question, followed from the laboratory bench to a molecule that is now being made ready for the clinic.
Results in mice do not always carry over to people.
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Almost 20 years ago
The question
Why do tumours that have lost the gene SMAD4 behave so much worse? The answer turned out to be two growth signals, BMP2 and BMP4, that nothing holds back any more.
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2022
Published, and open to read
The cell and mouse results appeared in Cellular Oncology, free for anyone to read and check — including every number on this page.
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2024
SmadMinX
A company, so that the work can leave the university and be made ready for patients rather than for the next paper.
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Today
Tested in miceWe are here
Not yet in people. No study has started, and the drug is not available to anyone.
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About 30 months
A first study in people
Longer in the body, the right patients, safety in animals. Only once those three are done can a first study be asked for.
06 For patients
An honest note for patients and families
This is research. It is not yet a treatment.
- Tested in mice, not yet in people.
- It is not available.
- There is no trial to join yet.
Your own doctor is the right person to talk to about treatment. You are welcome to write to us all the same.
07 The people
The people behind SmadMinX
Founder · CEO and CSO
Prof. Sheila Krishnadath
Professor, University of AntwerpGastroenterologist, Antwerp University Hospital
Almost20 yearsof her research behind this drug.
Romain De Rauville
COO, business development
Sylvie Vercruysse
CFO
Catherine Ghislain
Legal
Marino Caruso
Senior scientist
Advisors
- Karan Kanhai
- Loek Winter
- Patrick Busschaert
Partners
- CMMI
- Université Libre de Bruxelles
- VIB
- CER Groupe
- Ardena
- Secoya
