An experimental drug being developed by Curis Inc and Roche Holding AG showed promising effects in a small, early-stage trial linking children with medulloblastoma, the most ordinary kind of malignant brain tumor in children.

The drug, GDC-0449, is element of a hopeful new class of drugs that block the Hedgehog signaling pathway, which involves a number of proteins that play a position in cell development.

The Phase 1 trial results, obtainable here at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, demonstrated that 12 of 13 children with regular or drug-resistant medulloblastoma have tolerated the drug well without important side results, with one patient remaining on the drug for more than a year without illness evolution.

The hedgehog pathway has been shown to be accountable for 20 percent of medulloblastomas, as well as other cancers, ASCO said in a statement. Some patients have remained on that examination for extended periods of time and their untimely effects are optimistic and encouraging, Dr. Amar Gajjar, director of neuro-oncology at St. Jude Children’s research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee and the trial’s guide investigator,mentioned in a declaration.

Preceding early-stage researches have recommended that GDC-0449 may also be efficient against basal cell carcinoma in adults and there is currently a Phase trial being conducted for adults with frequent medulloblastoma.