Nerlakanti on the Role of HDAC Inhibitors in Osteosarcoma

Niveditha Nerlakanti, graduate research assistant, Moffitt Cancer Center, discusses the investigation of HDAC inhibitors in osteosarcoma.

At the 2023 AACR Annual Meeting, investigators deduced that the HDAC inhibitors panobinostat and romidepsin (Istodax) impair osteosarcoma growth in vitro and are effective for the treatment of metastatic lung disease in vivo. Additionally, SLC17A7 was highly and consistently induced in response to romidepsin across multiple lines of osteosarcoma. Preclinical mouse models showed an improvement in survival, even after a few days on the study, Nerlakanti says. Moreover, mice in the panobinostat group had improved survival compared with the control group, Nerlakanti notes. Additionally, investigators found that romidepsin significantly limits the growth of osteosarcoma in mice models, Nerlakanti says.

Although HDAC inhibitors could be an efficacious treatment for this patient population, these agents are associated with notable adverse effects, Nerlakanti adds.

Overall, osteosarcoma is the most common bone cancer; however, there have been minimal therapeutic advances, Nerlakanti continues. This could be due to the difficulty in conducting clinical trials for this patient population, and these studies would be the best way to address these unmet needs, Nerlakanti says. Investigators screened 54 FDA approved drugs for other cancers in 5 different osteosarcoma cell lines to better understand which agents may be the most effective in vitro against these lines, Nerlakanti concludes.