Cancer drug discovery firm Sareum Holdings (LON:SAR) says it's looking ahead with "cautious optimism" as it revealed positive progress in its three lead programmes.

Notably, CHK1 in particular is reaching a crucial phase of development as it nears the first in-human trials, it said in results for the six months to end December.

CHK1 is a key element of  the biochemical network that controls repairing DNA damage, including that caused by chemotherapy.

Studies have shown that dosing with the CHK1 inhibitor can enhance the activity of a relevant chemotherapy in in vivo models of lung, pancreatic and colon cancers.

Toxicology is now nearly completed  as the programme moves through preclinical development and towards Phase I clinical trials.

Elsewhere, good progress is being made to develop new formulations to administer the Aurora+FLT3 for AML (acute myeloid leukaemia) and other blood cancers candidate orally.

Meanwhile, the discovery and potential of SAR-20347, the TYK2/JAK1 inhibitor targeting diseased like inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and multiple sclerosis was reported in peer-reviewed Journal of Immunology.

Dr Paul Harper, chairman, said: "We have reached a critical stage in the development of our programmes, particularly CHK1.

"The next phase could be transformative in terms of the company reaching its goal of delivering a clinical-stage research programme."

He added: "As the programme development progresses, we continue to engage with potential licence partners to discuss commercialisation opportunities.

"To maintain the product pipeline, particularly in the event of a programme being licensed, we continue to investigate sources of new research opportunities."

In keeping with a firm at this formative stage, the loss before tax was £659,000 (2013: loss of £350,000), which was in line with expectations and reflected commitments to co-development agreements.

It ended the period with cash of £429,000 (2013: £1.6mln).