FDA allows Curis to resume testing cancer drug

(Reuters) – Curis Inc said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration allowed it to resume testing of its experimental cancer drug, lifting a November order halting enrolment in an early-stage trial. Enrolment for the study was halted after the death of a patient with advanced breast cancer, who experienced acute liver failure about a month after the drug, codenamed CUDC-427, was discontinued. The drug is designed to neutralize major inhibitors of apoptosis or programmed cell death – a process that ensures defective, damaged or superfluous cells are eliminated. Inhibition of apoptosis helps cancer cells persist and grow.