On March 27, 2026 Lantern Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ: LTRN) and its CNS-oncology focused wholly owned subsidiary Starlight Therapeutics reported that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared the Investigational New Drug (IND) application for STAR-001 in a planned Phase 1 pediatric clinical trial (IND No. 179145).
Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo!
Discover why more than 1,500 members use 1stOncology™ to excel in:
Early/Late Stage Pipeline Development - Target Scouting - Clinical Biomarkers - Indication Selection & Expansion - BD&L Contacts - Conference Reports - Combinatorial Drug Settings - Companion Diagnostics - Drug Repositioning - First-in-class Analysis - Competitive Analysis - Deals & Licensing
Schedule Your 30 min Free Demo!
STAR-001 is a precision oncology compound whose CNS and pediatric CNS indications were initially identified using Lantern’s proprietary RADR AI platform. The planned trial will evaluate STAR-001 as a single agent and in combination with spironolactone in pediatric patients with relapsed or refractory central nervous system (CNS) malignancies.
The trial is planned to be conducted in collaboration with POETIC — the Pediatric Oncology Experimental Therapeutics Investigators’ Consortium — a multicenter network of 14 leading academic children’s cancer centers across the United States, Canada, and Israel. The study protocol, as reviewed and cleared by the FDA, is titled:
"A PHASE 1, MULTICENTER, OPEN-LABEL, DOSE ESCALATION STUDY OF STAR-001 (LP-184) AS A SINGLE AGENT AND IN COMBINATION WITH SPIRONOLACTONE IN PEDIATRIC PATIENTS WITH RELAPSED OR REFRACTORY CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM MALIGNANCIES."
ADDRESSING A CRITICAL UNMET NEED IN PEDIATRIC NEURO-ONCOLOGY
Pediatric CNS tumors represent one of the most devastating and treatment-resistant categories of childhood cancer. In the United States, an estimated 4,975 new cases of primary brain tumors will be diagnosed in children and adolescents in 2026 alone — making brain tumors the leading cause of cancer-related death among children and adolescents ages 0 to 19. The burden extends far beyond U.S. borders: globally, approximately 47,600 new pediatric CNS tumor cases are diagnosed each year, resulting in an estimated 23,500 deaths annually. Across Europe, the disease is similarly pervasive, with wide disparities in survival outcomes for children facing high-grade or relapsed cancers.
Despite significant advances in molecular profiling and surgical technique over the past two decades, survival outcomes for children with relapsed or refractory high-grade CNS tumors have improved only marginally. For certain diagnoses, the prognosis remains catastrophic. Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), for instance, carries a median survival of less than 12 months from diagnosis with no approved curative option. For children with relapsed ATRT, GBM, medulloblastoma, and ependymoma, current therapeutic options are equally limited and often associated with severe long-term toxicity.
The trial design provides for STAR-001 (LP-184) to be evaluated across a range of these aggressive pediatric CNS malignancies, including:
Atypical Teratoid/Rhabdoid Tumor (ATRT) — for which Lantern Pharma holds FDA Rare Pediatric Disease Designation
Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG) — a brainstem tumor with virtually no long-term survivors under current standard of care
Glioblastoma (GBM)
Medulloblastoma
Ependymoma
"This IND clearance is a defining milestone for Starlight Therapeutics and a meaningful step forward for pediatric neuro-oncology. For children with relapsed or refractory CNS tumors, the options are desperately limited — and the science behind this planned trial was built to change that. CNS and pediatric CNS cancers were initially identified as priority indications by our team in support from our RADR AI platform, and that same analysis led us to ERCC3, a DNA repair enzyme that high-grade CNS tumors rely on to survive. Our modeling, analysis and subsequent in-vivo and animal studies showed that spironolactone could dismantle that pathway by degrading ERCC3 before STAR-001 even enters the cancer cell. In ATRT models, the combination extended median survival by 181% compared to the control. We believe this represents a genuinely new way to attack these brain cancers, and we are proud to be advancing it through a network of some of the world’s most respected pediatric oncology centers."
— Panna Sharma, CEO & President, Lantern Pharma Inc.; Founder & Chairman, Starlight Therapeutics
NOVEL BIOLOGY: TARGETING ERCC3 TO AMPLIFY DNA DAMAGE — A FIRST-IN-CLASS COMBINATION STRATEGY
A scientifically distinctive and potentially first-in-class feature of the planned trial is a dedicated combination cohort evaluating STAR-001 alongside spironolactone — exploiting a biological vulnerability in CNS tumor cells that Lantern’s RADR AI platform, helped in part to identify as a novel approach to creating synthetic lethality in these brain tumors.
STAR-001 operates through a precision bioactivation mechanism: selectively converted into a potent DNA-crosslinking agent within tumor cells that overexpress PTGR1 (Prostaglandin Reductase 1), it induces DNA double-strand breaks that are lethal to the cancer cell — if left unrepaired. By degrading ERCC3, spironolactone removes that option.
Lantern’s RADR AI platform identified ERCC3 (Excision Repair Cross-Complementation Group 3) — a key helicase in the nucleotide excision repair (NER) pathway — as a central repair mechanism that could be exploited in high-grade pediatric CNS malignancies including ATRT, medulloblastoma, and diffuse midline glioma, compared to low-grade gliomas. Spironolactone — a brain-penetrant, orally administered agent with a long safety record in pediatric patients — degrades ERCC3 through targeted proteasomal degradation, reducing ERCC3 protein levels by at least 50% across tumor models and confirming direct target engagement. With this repair pathway dismantled, STAR-001-induced DNA damage accumulates unrepaired, driving dramatically enhanced tumor cell death based on preclinical observations. In ATRT orthotopic xenograft models, the combination extended median survival from 27 to 76 days — a 181% improvement over control (p = 0.0018) — with comparable results across medulloblastoma and DMG models showing up to a 3- to 5-fold increase in apoptotic cells versus monotherapy (p < 0.0001).
This two-pronged strategy — AI-guided identification of a DNA repair vulnerability, precision bioactivation of a DNA-damaging agent, and pharmacological elimination of the tumor cell’s repair escape route — represents a mechanistically coherent and potentially transformative approach to pediatric CNS cancers where conventional chemotherapy has reached its limits.
"High-grade pediatric brain tumors represent a significant unmet medical need, with few effective options for children whose disease has relapsed or become refractory to standard therapy. STAR-001 is a novel, precision brain-penetrant alkylator, bioactivated by PTGR1, that has demonstrated meaningful activity across multiple malignant pediatric brain tumor types in preclinical models. In collaboration with the POETIC consortium, we have developed a Phase 1 pediatric protocol — reviewed and cleared by the FDA — to assess the safety, tolerability, and preliminary activity of STAR-001, both as a single agent and in combination with spironolactone, in children with recurrent malignant brain tumors. We look forward to initiating this planned trial and to the possibility of delivering a new therapeutic option to children who need it most."
— Marc Chamberlain, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, Starlight Therapeutics
MULTICENTER PEDIATRIC CLINICAL TRIAL DESIGN
The planned trial will be conducted across approximately 15 leading academic pediatric oncology centers in collaboration with POETIC (Pediatric Oncology Experimental Therapeutics Investigators’ Consortium), a multicenter network of 14 institutions — including MD Anderson Cancer Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford — spanning the United States, Canada, and Israel. The planned trial is subject to obtaining additional funding and it is designed to enroll approximately 18 to 42 pediatric patients aged 1 to 17 years. POETIC’s established clinical infrastructure provides Starlight with the reach to enroll a geographically and demographically diverse patient population across North America and internationally.
ABOUT STAR-001 (LP-184)
STAR-001 is Starlight Therapeutics’ CNS oncology compound, co-developed with Lantern Pharma as LP-184. CNS and pediatric CNS cancers were initially identified as priority indications for STAR-001 through Lantern’s proprietary RADR AI platform, which analyzed genomic and molecular data across tumor types to pinpoint the PTGR1 overexpression signature that makes these malignancies particularly susceptible to STAR-001’s mechanism of action. STAR-001 is a precision acylfulvene-based agent engineered to exploit elevated PTGR1 (Prostaglandin Reductase 1) expression in tumor cells. Laboratory observations have demonstrated that PTGR1-mediated bioactivation selectively converts STAR-001 into a highly reactive DNA-crosslinking species within cancer cells, while normal tissues with lower PTGR1 activity are largely spared. LP-184/STAR-001 has received multiple FDA orphan and rare pediatric disease designations and has demonstrated encouraging activity in early-stage clinical and preclinical studies. In pediatric CNS cancers — where PTGR1 overexpression has been identified across ATRT, GBM, DIPG, medulloblastoma, and ependymoma — we believe STAR-001 represents a scientifically grounded precision approach to a historically intractable disease.
(Press release, Lantern Pharma, MAR 27, 2026, View Source [SID1234663987])