Salarius Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced a research partnership with the Cancer Epigenetics Institute at Fox Chase Cancer Center. The research, to be carried out by the laboratory of Johnathan Whetstine, the institute’s director, will help identify new indications and potential biomarkers for Salarius’ lead drug candidate, seclidemstat. Seclidemstat (SP-2577) is a novel, oral, reversible inhibitor of lysine-specific histone demethylase 1, also referred to as LSD1, an enzyme that plays a key role in the development and progression of several cancers. Therapies designed to inhibit LSD1’s cancer-promoting activity represent a growing field of research. Salarius believes seclidemstat uses a unique approach compared to other LSD1 inhibitors now in development by simultaneously targeting the enzymatic activity of LSD1 and its scaffolding properties, creating a dual mechanism of action that could provide differential therapeutic activity in several cancer types, including solid tumors. To date, the therapeutic activity of LSD1 inhibitors in clinical development has largely been confined to hematological cancers and myeloproliferative neoplasms. A Phase 1/2 clinical trial is now underway exploring seclidemstat as a therapy for sarcomas. This trial is treating patients with myxoid liposarcoma and other FET-rearranged sarcomas with single-agent seclidemstat and evaluating seclidemstat in combination with the chemotherapy agents topotecan and cyclophosphamide as a potential second- and third-line therapy for Ewing sarcoma, a deadly pediatric bone cancer. Fox Chase is one of nine clinical trial sites now enrolling patients.