Chemokine Therapeutics Investigator Presents Encouraging Preliminary Results From CTCE-9908 Phase I/II Clinical Trial
Chemokine Therapeutics Corp. announced preliminary results from the CTCE-9908 Phase I/II clinical trial by Dr. Sebastien Hotte, Lead Investigator. The preliminary results of the Phase I/II trial demonstrate that CTCE-9908 is well tolerated with no dose limiting toxicity observed up to the maximum dose of 5.0 mg/kg/day that was tested. The main side effect at the maximum dose tested was moderate phlebitis (blood vessel inflammation). The preliminary results found that seven out of twenty cancer patients showed stable disease after one month and one patient with small bowel carcinoma showed stable disease after six months of therapy with CTCE-9908.
The patients enrolled in this study all had advanced cancers with metastatic disease that was refractory to all standard therapy, or for which no curative therapy exists. Final results are expected by year end. The Company is continuing with its plans to start an international Phase II study in 2008.
The results of preclinical studies using CTCE-9908 were presented by Dr. Ronnie Poon, Department of Surgery, University of Hong Kong. These studies evaluated the therapeutic potential of CTCE-9908 in cell culture models and an animal model with human hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer). The results demonstrated that CTCE-9908 inhibited tumour cell migration and significantly reduced circulating tumour cells in the blood which resulted in a significant reduction in the number of animals with new sites of disease referred to as metastasis. The study concluded that CTCE-9908 is a potential therapeutic strategy for the inhibition of liver cancer metastasis.
Additional preclinical data was presented by Dr. Donald Wong, Director of Preclinical Drug Development for the Company. The study demonstrated that CTCE-9908 treatment in combination with chemotherapy (Docetaxel) either in an adjuvant or consolidation schedule reduced the metastatic area by 40-50% as well as reducing the number of animals with distant metastasis. The consolidation therapy (chemotherapy followed by CTCE-9908) resulted in a number of mice that were free of primary tumour and metastasis while on treatment with CTCE-9908 and remained so even after CTCE-9908 treatment was discontinued. The study concluded that CTCE-9908 in combination with Docetaxel reduced the metastatic area of human prostate cancer in animal models as well as produced a number of mice that were free of primary tumour and metastases while on treatment.
CTCE-9908 is a peptide analog of the chemokine SDF-1, and an antagonist of its receptor, CXCR4. SDF-1 is the only known naturally occurring chemokine that binds to CXCR4, which is present on many cancer cells. This binding process is believed to be critical in the metastasis (or spread) of cancer cells to distant locations in the body, where they form secondary tumors.
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