Approximately 65 % of all cancer patients, some three million newly diagnosed patients per year in the USA and Europe alone, are treated with cytotoxic agents with the objective to kill tumor cells. Unfortunately, treatment success with cytotoxic drugs is confounded by the acquisition of resistance to these drugs by some tumor cells. Consequently these resistant tumor cells grow once again, leading to disease progression, subsequent metastases and eventual end of life for the patient.

The development of RP101 represents a truly novel approach to the prevention of chemoresistance and enhancement of chemosensitivity. Through its unique interaction with heat shock protein 27 (Hsp27), RP101 has a clearly differentiated mechanism of action that has the potential to become a very promising therapeutic increasing the survival of cancer patients.