Organization and Business Operations	12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2015
Accounting Policies [Abstract]
Organization and Business Operations	1. Organization and Business Operations *Organization and Business* Lixte Biotechnology Holdings, Inc. (“Holdings”), a Delaware corporation, including its wholly-owned Delaware subsidiary, Lixte Biotechnology, Inc. (“Lixte”) (collectively, the “Company”), is a drug discovery company that uses biomarker technology to identify enzyme targets associated with serious common diseases and then designs novel compounds to attack those targets. The Company’s product pipeline encompasses two major categories of compounds at various stages of pre-clinical and clinical development that the Company believes have broad therapeutic potential not only for cancer but also for other debilitating and life-threatening diseases. The Company’s activities are subject to significant risks and uncertainties, including the need for additional capital, as described below. The Company has not yet commenced any sustainable revenue-generating operations, does not have any positive cash flows from operations, and is dependent on equity capital to fund its operating requirements. The Company’s common stock is traded on the OTCQB operated by the OTC Markets under the symbol “LIXT”. *Operating Plans* The Company’s primary focus is developing new treatments for human cancers for which better therapies are urgently needed. The scope of potential applications of the Company’s products has expanded to other common non-malignant diseases, including vascular diseases (heart attacks and stroke), diabetes, genetic diseases, such as Gaucher’s disease, and recently to depression and potentially post-traumatic stress syndrome. This has occurred because the targets selected by the Company have multiple functions in the cell, which, when altered, result in different disorders that may benefit by treatment from the Company’s products. The Company’s drug discovery process is based on discerning clues to potential new targets for disease treatments reported in the increasingly large body of literature identifying the molecular variants which characterize human cancers and other non-cancer disorders. The Company designs drugs for which there are existing data suggesting that they may affect the altered pathways of the cancer cell and may be given safely to humans. The Company seeks to rapidly arrive at patentable structures through analysis of the literature rather than screening of thousands of structures for activity against a particular biochemical pathway. This approach has led to the development of two classes of drugs for the treatment of cancer, consisting of protein phosphatase inhibitors (PTase-i), designated by the Company as the LB-100 series of compounds, and histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi), designated by the Company as the LB-200 series of compounds. Compounds of both types also have potential use in the prevention and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. The LB-100 series consists of novel structures, which have the potential to be first in their class, and may be useful in the treatment of not only several types of cancer but also vascular and metabolic diseases. The LB-200 series contains compounds which have the potential to be the most effective in its class and may be useful for the treatment of chronic hereditary diseases, such as Gaucher’s disease, in addition to cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. The Company’s primary objective has been to bring one lead compound of the LB-100 series to clinical trial. In 2012, the Company completed the pre-clinical studies required to prepare an Investigational New Drug (“IND”) application to the United States Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) to conduct a Phase 1 clinical trial of LB-100, and engaged Theradex Systems, Inc. (“Theradex”), an international contract research organization (“CRO”) that provides professional services for the clinical research and development of pharmaceutical compounds, to be responsible for the clinical development of the Company’s lead compound, LB-100, and to prepare an IND application for filing with the FDA. The Company filed an IND application with the FDA on April 30, 2012, and on July 24, 2012, the FDA notified the Company that it would allow initiation of a Phase 1 clinical trial of LB-100. The purpose of this clinical trial was to demonstrate that LB-100 can be administered safely to human beings at a dose and at a frequency that achieves the desired pharmacologic effect; in this case, inhibition of a specific enzyme, without being associated with toxicities considered unacceptable. The Phase 1 clinical trial of LB-100 was designed to be conducted in two parts. In Part 1, the maximum tolerable dose (“MTD”) of LB-100 was to be determined. In Part 2, the MTD of LB-100, in combination with the standard cytotoxic drug docetaxel (which is a well-established anti-mitotic chemotherapy medication approved by the FDA for the treatment of various cancers), was to be determined. The Phase 1 clinical trial of LB-100 began in April 2013 with the entry of patients into the clinical trial initiated at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California, and was extended in December 2013 to include the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, both of which are Comprehensive Cancer Centers designated by the National Cancer Institute. As the accrual of patients was slower than anticipated, in October 2014, the Company entered into a Clinical Research Agreement (“CRA”) with US Oncology Research, LLC, a large community-based research network based in Texas, to increase the rate of entry of patients into the clinical trial by adding four more active clinical oncologic research sites. The costs of Part 1 of the Phase 1 clinical trial have exceeded the Company’s original estimates, in part because patients were able to tolerate higher doses of LB-100 than originally expected, thus requiring more dose escalation steps to determine the MTD of LB-100 given alone. In addition, patients have been achieving stabilization without any dose-limiting toxicity (“DLT”), remaining on treatment with LB-100 for longer periods of time than is usual in a Phase 1 clinical trial of a new drug in patients failing all previous treatments. The Company’s interpretation of the clinical trial results to date is that LB-100 as a single agent has activity against several types of cancer, as evidenced by stabilization of progressive disease in the absence of DLT. The Company is continuing to administer LB-100 to patients if there is no cancer progression and the patient feels well and has no significant toxicity. The Company had planned to proceed with Part 2 of the Phase 1 clinical trial to determine the toxicity of LB-100 in combination with docetaxel against a specific solid tumor for which single agent docetaxel is indicated. However, two developments have altered this plan. LB-100 appears to have anti-cancer activity in its own right, and second, preclinical studies indicate that LB-100 in combination with cisplatin (a widely used cytotoxic drug) is more active than LB-100 in combination with docetaxel. LB-100 significantly potentiates the standard anti-cancer drug cisplatin in animal models of several tumor types, including hepatocellular cancer and platinum-resistant ovarian cancer. In addition, it has been reported that inhibition of the enzyme-target of LB-100, PP2A, inhibits certain variants of the hematologic disorder known as myelodysplastic syndrome (“MDS”). Accordingly, the Company has decided not to proceed with Part 2 of the Phase 1 clinical trial, and has initiated planning for Phase 1b/2 clinical trials in 2016 to evaluate the effectiveness of LB-100 alone for the treatment of MDS and in combination with a platinum compound for the treatment of platinum-resistant ovarian cancer. The Company estimates that Part 1 of the Phase 1 clinical trial of LB-100 will now cost a total of approximately $2,200,000 and will be completed by May 31, 2016, as compared to the Company’s previous estimate of a total cost of approximately $1,800,000 and a completion date of December 31, 2015. The following factors have contributed to the most recent revisions to the total cost and completion date of this clinical trial: (1) some patients are continuing to receive the study compound longer than is usual for patients with treatment-refractory progressive disease in a Phase 1 clinical trial; (2) the establishment of the MTD required more subjects than the initially planned six patients; and (3) the planned pharmacokinetic studies required more than the initially planned three patients. *Going Concern* The Company’s consolidated financial statements have been presented on the basis that it is a going concern, which contemplates the realization of assets and satisfaction of liabilities in the normal course of business. The Company has not generated any sustainable revenues from operations to date, and does not expect to do so in the foreseeable future. The Company has experienced recurring operating losses and negative operating cash flows since inception, and has financed its working capital requirements during this period primarily through the recurring sale of its equity securities and the exercise of outstanding warrants. As a result, management has concluded that there is substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern, and the Company’s independent registered public accounting firm, in their report on the Company’s consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2015, has expressed substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. The Company’s ability to continue as a going concern is dependent upon its ability to raise additional equity capital to fund its research and development activities and to ultimately achieve sustainable operating revenues and profits. The Company’s consolidated financial statements do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of these uncertainties. Because the Company is currently engaged in research at a relatively early stage, it will likely take a significant amount of time to develop any product or intellectual property capable of generating revenues. Accordingly, the Company’s business is unlikely to generate any sustainable operating revenues in the next several years, and may never do so. In addition, to the extent that the Company is able to generate revenues through licensing its technologies or through product sales, there can be no assurance that the Company will be able to achieve positive earnings and operating cash flows. At December 31, 2015, the Company had cash and money market funds aggregating $129,376. In January 2016, the Company entered into a agreement to sell additional shares of preferred stock for aggregate cash proceeds of $1,750,000 to be received by June 3, 2016 (see Note 4), as a result of which the Company believes that it will have sufficient funds to complete the Phase 1 clinical trial of its lead anti-cancer compound LB-100 and to conduct a Phase 1b/2 clinical trial of LB-100 in MDS, as well as to fund the Company’s ongoing operating expenses, including maintaining its patent portfolio, through approximately June 30, 2017. The amount and timing of future cash requirements will depend on the pace and design of the Company’s clinical trial program. The Company currently plans to attempt to raise an additional approximately $3,000,000 of capital in 2016, likely in the form of equity, to also conduct a Phase 1b/2 clinical trial of LB-100 in combination with a platinum compound in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer and to extend the Company’s pre-clinical research to develop oral versions of its lead anti-phosphatase compounds. As market conditions present uncertainty as to the Company’s ability to secure additional funds, there can be no assurances that the Company will be able to secure additional financing on acceptable terms, or at all, as and when necessary to continue to conduct operations. If cash resources are insufficient to satisfy the Company’s ongoing cash requirements, the Company would be required to scale back or discontinue its technology and product development programs and/or clinical trials, or obtain funds, if available (although there can be no certainty), through strategic alliances that may require the Company to relinquish rights to certain of its compounds, or to discontinue its operations entirely.

Organization and Business Operations

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2015

1. Organization and Business Operations

Organization and Business

Lixte Biotechnology Holdings, Inc. (“Holdings”), a Delaware corporation, including its wholly-owned Delaware subsidiary, Lixte Biotechnology, Inc. (“Lixte”) (collectively, the “Company”), is a drug discovery company that uses biomarker technology to identify enzyme targets associated with serious common diseases and then designs novel compounds to attack those targets. The Company’s product pipeline encompasses two major categories of compounds at various stages of pre-clinical and clinical development that the Company believes have broad therapeutic potential not only for cancer but also for other debilitating and life-threatening diseases.

The Company’s activities are subject to significant risks and uncertainties, including the need for additional capital, as described below. The Company has not yet commenced any sustainable revenue-generating operations, does not have any positive cash flows from operations, and is dependent on equity capital to fund its operating requirements.

The Company’s common stock is traded on the OTCQB operated by the OTC Markets under the symbol “LIXT”.

Operating Plans

The Company’s primary focus is developing new treatments for human cancers for which better therapies are urgently needed. The scope of potential applications of the Company’s products has expanded to other common non-malignant diseases, including vascular diseases (heart attacks and stroke), diabetes, genetic diseases, such as Gaucher’s disease, and recently to depression and potentially post-traumatic stress syndrome. This has occurred because the targets selected by the Company have multiple functions in the cell, which, when altered, result in different disorders that may benefit by treatment from the Company’s products.

The Company’s drug discovery process is based on discerning clues to potential new targets for disease treatments reported in the increasingly large body of literature identifying the molecular variants which characterize human cancers and other non-cancer disorders. The Company designs drugs for which there are existing data suggesting that they may affect the altered pathways of the cancer cell and may be given safely to humans. The Company seeks to rapidly arrive at patentable structures through analysis of the literature rather than screening of thousands of structures for activity against a particular biochemical pathway.

This approach has led to the development of two classes of drugs for the treatment of cancer, consisting of protein phosphatase inhibitors (PTase-i), designated by the Company as the LB-100 series of compounds, and histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi), designated by the Company as the LB-200 series of compounds. Compounds of both types also have potential use in the prevention and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.

The LB-100 series consists of novel structures, which have the potential to be first in their class, and may be useful in the treatment of not only several types of cancer but also vascular and metabolic diseases. The LB-200 series contains compounds which have the potential to be the most effective in its class and may be useful for the treatment of chronic hereditary diseases, such as Gaucher’s disease, in addition to cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.

The Company’s primary objective has been to bring one lead compound of the LB-100 series to clinical trial. In 2012, the Company completed the pre-clinical studies required to prepare an Investigational New Drug (“IND”) application to the United States Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) to conduct a Phase 1 clinical trial of LB-100, and engaged Theradex Systems, Inc. (“Theradex”), an international contract research organization (“CRO”) that provides professional services for the clinical research and development of pharmaceutical compounds, to be responsible for the clinical development of the Company’s lead compound, LB-100, and to prepare an IND application for filing with the FDA.

The Company filed an IND application with the FDA on April 30, 2012, and on July 24, 2012, the FDA notified the Company that it would allow initiation of a Phase 1 clinical trial of LB-100. The purpose of this clinical trial was to demonstrate that LB-100 can be administered safely to human beings at a dose and at a frequency that achieves the desired pharmacologic effect; in this case, inhibition of a specific enzyme, without being associated with toxicities considered unacceptable. The Phase 1 clinical trial of LB-100 was designed to be conducted in two parts. In Part 1, the maximum tolerable dose (“MTD”) of LB-100 was to be determined. In Part 2, the MTD of LB-100, in combination with the standard cytotoxic drug docetaxel (which is a well-established anti-mitotic chemotherapy medication approved by the FDA for the treatment of various cancers), was to be determined.

The Phase 1 clinical trial of LB-100 began in April 2013 with the entry of patients into the clinical trial initiated at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California, and was extended in December 2013 to include the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, both of which are Comprehensive Cancer Centers designated by the National Cancer Institute. As the accrual of patients was slower than anticipated, in October 2014, the Company entered into a Clinical Research Agreement (“CRA”) with US Oncology Research, LLC, a large community-based research network based in Texas, to increase the rate of entry of patients into the clinical trial by adding four more active clinical oncologic research sites.

The costs of Part 1 of the Phase 1 clinical trial have exceeded the Company’s original estimates, in part because patients were able to tolerate higher doses of LB-100 than originally expected, thus requiring more dose escalation steps to determine the MTD of LB-100 given alone. In addition, patients have been achieving stabilization without any dose-limiting toxicity (“DLT”), remaining on treatment with LB-100 for longer periods of time than is usual in a Phase 1 clinical trial of a new drug in patients failing all previous treatments. The Company’s interpretation of the clinical trial results to date is that LB-100 as a single agent has activity against several types of cancer, as evidenced by stabilization of progressive disease in the absence of DLT. The Company is continuing to administer LB-100 to patients if there is no cancer progression and the patient feels well and has no significant toxicity.

The Company had planned to proceed with Part 2 of the Phase 1 clinical trial to determine the toxicity of LB-100 in combination with docetaxel against a specific solid tumor for which single agent docetaxel is indicated. However, two developments have altered this plan. LB-100 appears to have anti-cancer activity in its own right, and second, preclinical studies indicate that LB-100 in combination with cisplatin (a widely used cytotoxic drug) is more active than LB-100 in combination with docetaxel. LB-100 significantly potentiates the standard anti-cancer drug cisplatin in animal models of several tumor types, including hepatocellular cancer and platinum-resistant ovarian cancer. In addition, it has been reported that inhibition of the enzyme-target of LB-100, PP2A, inhibits certain variants of the hematologic disorder known as myelodysplastic syndrome (“MDS”). Accordingly, the Company has decided not to proceed with Part 2 of the Phase 1 clinical trial, and has initiated planning for Phase 1b/2 clinical trials in 2016 to evaluate the effectiveness of LB-100 alone for the treatment of MDS and in combination with a platinum compound for the treatment of platinum-resistant ovarian cancer.

The Company estimates that Part 1 of the Phase 1 clinical trial of LB-100 will now cost a total of approximately $2,200,000 and will be completed by May 31, 2016, as compared to the Company’s previous estimate of a total cost of approximately $1,800,000 and a completion date of December 31, 2015. The following factors have contributed to the most recent revisions to the total cost and completion date of this clinical trial: (1) some patients are continuing to receive the study compound longer than is usual for patients with treatment-refractory progressive disease in a Phase 1 clinical trial; (2) the establishment of the MTD required more subjects than the initially planned six patients; and (3) the planned pharmacokinetic studies required more than the initially planned three patients.

Going Concern

The Company’s consolidated financial statements have been presented on the basis that it is a going concern, which contemplates the realization of assets and satisfaction of liabilities in the normal course of business. The Company has not generated any sustainable revenues from operations to date, and does not expect to do so in the foreseeable future. The Company has experienced recurring operating losses and negative operating cash flows since inception, and has financed its working capital requirements during this period primarily through the recurring sale of its equity securities and the exercise of outstanding warrants. As a result, management has concluded that there is substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern, and the Company’s independent registered public accounting firm, in their report on the Company’s consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2015, has expressed substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern.

The Company’s ability to continue as a going concern is dependent upon its ability to raise additional equity capital to fund its research and development activities and to ultimately achieve sustainable operating revenues and profits. The Company’s consolidated financial statements do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of these uncertainties.

Because the Company is currently engaged in research at a relatively early stage, it will likely take a significant amount of time to develop any product or intellectual property capable of generating revenues. Accordingly, the Company’s business is unlikely to generate any sustainable operating revenues in the next several years, and may never do so. In addition, to the extent that the Company is able to generate revenues through licensing its technologies or through product sales, there can be no assurance that the Company will be able to achieve positive earnings and operating cash flows.

At December 31, 2015, the Company had cash and money market funds aggregating $129,376. In January 2016, the Company entered into a agreement to sell additional shares of preferred stock for aggregate cash proceeds of $1,750,000 to be received by June 3, 2016 (see Note 4), as a result of which the Company believes that it will have sufficient funds to complete the Phase 1 clinical trial of its lead anti-cancer compound LB-100 and to conduct a Phase 1b/2 clinical trial of LB-100 in MDS, as well as to fund the Company’s ongoing operating expenses, including maintaining its patent portfolio, through approximately June 30, 2017.

The amount and timing of future cash requirements will depend on the pace and design of the Company’s clinical trial program. The Company currently plans to attempt to raise an additional approximately $3,000,000 of capital in 2016, likely in the form of equity, to also conduct a Phase 1b/2 clinical trial of LB-100 in combination with a platinum compound in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer and to extend the Company’s pre-clinical research to develop oral versions of its lead anti-phosphatase compounds.

As market conditions present uncertainty as to the Company’s ability to secure additional funds, there can be no assurances that the Company will be able to secure additional financing on acceptable terms, or at all, as and when necessary to continue to conduct operations. If cash resources are insufficient to satisfy the Company’s ongoing cash requirements, the Company would be required to scale back or discontinue its technology and product development programs and/or clinical trials, or obtain funds, if available (although there can be no certainty), through strategic alliances that may require the Company to relinquish rights to certain of its compounds, or to discontinue its operations entirely.