The reviews for the much-hyped new movie “Joker Folie à Deux” starring Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga are in and judging from the 34% Rotten Tomatoes score it is insanely unpopular. Or let’s just say, since the Joker is apparently a musical, that not too many reviewers sung its praises. No judgement from us, we haven’t seen it, but one BBC reviewer who did called it “A dreary, underwhelming, unnecessary slog”. That review was practically a love letter next to this savage slapdown from the Daily Beast: “Joker: Folie à Deux’ Is So Bad and So Boring It’s Absolutely Shocking.” Absolutely shocking is that no one thought to call the movie, “Much à deux about nothing”. Lol.
Folie à Deux is a French term that refers to shared madness or psychosis, which is the case between tumors and their supporting cells or stroma. Both EpicentRx lead therapies, AdAPT-001, and RRx-001 (nibrozetone) target not only tumors but also elements of their stroma. For AdAPT-001 it is the immunosuppressive and profibrotic cytokine, transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta), and cancer associated fibroblasts (CAFs). For RRx-001 it is tumor associated macrophages or TAMs, which are associated with immunosuppression and therapeutic resistance.
So, unlike the mostly negative reviews about the Joker movie, here’s a uniformly positive one of our own about RRx-001 and AdAPT-001 instead: that they are perhaps potent enough to bid this stroma-cancer folie adieu.