About Us

Oncolix, Inc. (Oncolix) is a bio-pharmaceutical company based in Houston, Texas. The company is in late pre-clinical development of Prolanta™, a targeted therapeutic protein for the treatment of ovarian and breast cancer.

Prolactin (PRL) is a neuroendocrine hormone involved in the development and differentiation of the mammary gland and ovary, and its biological activities are mediated by a specific membrane receptor, the PRL receptor (PLRL). Recent evidence suggests a strong link between PRL and breast cancer in that inhibition of PRLR inhibits breast cancer cell growth and transgenic mice that over express hPRL have a higher breast cancer incidence.

Prolanta prevents the dimerization of the prolactin receptor (PRLR), disrupting various signaling pathways thereby suppressing tumor cell growth. As the PRLR is expressed in the majority of ovarian and breast cancer patients, a prolactin (PRL) antagonist such as Prolanta is a novel candidate for the development of a targeted therapy for these cancer.

Ovarian cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death in women in the U.S. and the leading cause of gynecologic death. Despite being one tenth as common as breast cancer, ovarian cancer is three times more lethal. More than 22,000 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer each year, with more than 16,000 dying from the disease. Because of the difficulties with the early detection of ovarian cancer, ~80% of patients are diagnosed with advanced staged disease. Of these patients, 80 to 90% will initially respond to chemotherapy, but less than 10 to 15% will remain in permanent remission. Although advances in treatment have led to an improved
5-year survival rate approaching 45%, overall survival has not improved.

Breast cancer affects more than 1.2 million patients in the U.S. each year and is the second most common cancer in women with more than 250,000 new patients diagnosed every year. Approved therapies used in the treatment of breast cancer (2008) include molecularly targeted therapies, e.g. Herceptin ($4.71B), hormonal therapies, e.g. Arimidex ($1.87B) and Femara ($1.15B), and chemotherapies, e.g. Taxotere ($2.99B). However, these treatments are effective in only 10 to 60% of patients. Many patients' tumors are not ideal candidates for current molecularly targeted or hormonal therapies leaving few options other than chemotherapies that come with significant side effect and toxicity profiles.

The aim of Oncolix's product development is to bring to market agents with increased efficacy and decreased toxicity in cancer therapy through targeted therapies. Prolanta is anticipated to be effective in the majority of ovarian and breast cancer patients as this therapy targets tumors that express the prolactin receptor which occurs in the majority of these tumors.