Background
Breast cancer is a leading cause of death and is the most prevalent cancer among women. An estimated 3 million women in the U.S. today are living with breast cancer.  The incidence of breast cancer in the U.S. has more than doubled in the past 30 years. In 1964, the lifetime risk was 1 in 20. Today it's 1 in 8. No vaccine or other universally successful method for the prevention or treatment of breast cancer is currently available. Management of the disease currently relies on a combination of early diagnosis (through routine breast screening procedures) and aggressive treatment, which may include one or more of a variety of treatments such as surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and hormone therapy. The current invention encompasses a class of compounds having the property of anti-tumor activity against human breast cancer comprising the novel structures of 4-oxo-butenoic derivatives. These compounds have high activity against human breast cancer and low toxicity in animals.  The compounds can be used as therapeutic agents against breast cancer.  

Application
The novel compounds can be used in humans as therapeutic means for the eradication and/or treatment of breast cancer.

Invention
This invention relates to novel 4-oxo-butenoic acid derivatives and to their use as therapeutic means for the prevention and treatment of human breast cancer (see U.S. patent # 6,602,907).

Advantages
•    All of the compounds posses at least 10 times lower acute toxicity compared to the most promising antitumor agent developed in the past three decades
•    Ease of synthesis
•    Cheap Cost

Lead Inventor
Howard Miles, Ph.D.

Contact
Attn: Svetlana Shtrom, Ph.D., MBA
University of Central Florida
Office of Research and Commercialization
12201 Research Parkway, Suite 501
Orlando, Fl 32826-3246
Phone: 407.823.5150
Fax: 407.823.3299
sshtrom@mail.ucf.edu
UCF ID# 6283