About Benbrook

Cancer claimed more than 570,000 American lives last year. Of those, 3,700 deaths resulted from cervical cancer and more than 16,000 from ovarian cancer.

The much lesser known but life-threatening Polycystic Kidney Disease – manifested by multiple cysts on the kidneys that grow and multiply over time, ultimately causing renal shut-down – strikes more than 600,000 Americans and an estimated 12.5 million people worldwide. Currently, dialysis and transplantation currently are the only forms of treatment.
A University of Oklahoma scientist has developed a compound to treat all of these potential fatal diseases. One patent has been issued on the technology and another is pending.

Doris Benbrook, professor and director of research in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the OU Health Sciences Center, leads a team of scientists that has developed a synthetic Vitamin A retinoid compound that induces potent apoptosis, a natural form of cell suicide in cancer cells, but that, unlike current cancer therapies, is not toxic to healthy cells.

The compound, initially tested on cervical cancer cells, followed by ovarian and other cancers, most recently has been found effective against PKD.

Clinical trials with the compound are in progress. Benbrook anticipates FDA approval within two years.