One of the slogans of Blockbuster Video, the erstwhile video rental store chain from the 1980s and early 1990s, was “Be kind, rewind”. This slogan reminded customers to pay — and play — it back, not forward, by rewinding their #VHS cassettes. (And if customers didn’t rewind, they had to pay a $2 penalty fee — ah, the good old days! #nostalgia).
“Be kind, rewind” is also the unofficial slogan of lead EpicentRx therapy, RRx-001 (nibrozetone), which attempts to turn back time — that is, to rewind or reverse several conditions and diseases like cancer, severe oral mucositis, xerostomia, endometriosis, Parkinsons and ALS or MND to less aggressive forms that were perhaps present at the outset. At the same time, RRx-001 tries to follow the “be kind” part of the slogan because, to date, it is not associated with any dose limiting toxicities (DLTs) or related serious adverse events.
In the ongoing Phase 3 clinical trial, REPLATINUM, RRx-001 is administered with a platinum doublet in third line or beyond small cell lung cancer (SCLC) to chemosensitize or chemoresensitize these tumors so they respond to the platinum doublet as well as they did in first line when the cancer was newly diagnosed.
In the ongoing Phase 2b clinical trial, KEVLARx, RRx-001 is given with cisplatin and intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) in first line locally advanced head and neck cancer to prevent the development of the intolerable side effects, severe oral #mucositis and #xerostomia or dry mouth, which are otherwise common.
In a soon-to-start Phase 1 clinical trial for endometriosis, RRx-001 will hopefully rewind the disease to the time before the debilitating main symptoms like dysmenorrhea, dyspareunia, bowel irritation, backache and chronic pelvic pain became predominant.
In other words, if the “be kind, rewind” slogan is correct, RRx-001 will make patients who are otherwise at the end of the treatment line respond like they did at the beginning, before their disease really took off and before therapeutic resistance and intolerable toxicities developed, so they can resume a starring role in their own lives.