Pancreas Cancer News and Archives
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	June 26, 2000	Virulizin Phase I/II Trial Results
	June 24, 2000	NCI funds Trial of Controversial “Alternative” Treatment Regimen
	June 5, 2000	Filgrastim Approved
	June 1, 2000	GBC-590 in Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer
	May 23, 2000	Phase II Results of Rubitecan
	May 22, 2000	Interim Phase II Results for Irofulven
	April 11, 2000	Aphton's Agent Anti-G17
	Virulizin Phase I/II Trial Results June 26, 2000 Lorus Therapeutics, Inc. of Toronto has announced that it has completed a meta-analysis of three combined Phase I/II clinical trial results involving its immunotherapeutic agent, Virulizin, which appears to show that agent has anti-cancer clinical activity and is well tolerated. Among the 61 patients included in the analysis, 49 were classified as evaluable (and 87 percent had received prior therapy). The median survival duration was 5.7 months among the evaluable patients, with a six-month duration survival rate of 48 percent and a nine-month duration survival rate of 31 percent. This was adjudged by the biostatistician associated with the project to be better than the most comparable gemcitabine study, that of ML Rothenberg et al. in 1996. Based on these findings, Lorus plans to file an IND application for a Phase III clinical trial of Virulizin for the treatment of pancreatic cancer. [ABSTRACT] NCI funds Trial of Controversial “Alternative” Treatment Regimen June 24, 2000 The U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) has approved the funding of a Phase III clinical trial for patients with Stages II through IV pancreatic adenocarcinoma, located at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center and involving the Gonzalez regimen, named after its chief proponent, Dr. Nicholas Gonzalez, and consisting of such measures as dietary restrictions, the ingestion of fresh fruits and vegetables, taking dietary supplements including vitamins and pancreatic enzymes, as well as the administration of coffee enemas. The etiology of the underlying theory for this therapy, as proposed John Beard a Scots embryologist at the turn of the twentieth century and as further popularized by the Texas dentist William Donald Kelley more recently, is that cancer is a product of the effect of ectopic germ cells which are caused by protease deficiency. Filgrastim Approved June 5, 2000 The Amgen agent filgrastim (granulocyte-colony stimulating factor) has been approved by the FDA for use in the U.S. as a mobilization agent for peripheral blood progenitor cells. GBC-590 in Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer June 1, 2000 SafeScience announced the beginning of a phase II trial of GBC-590, a carbohydrate lectin inhibitor, for the treatment of pancreatic cancer. The company reported modest results in the initial human trials where the drug appears to have few side effects. The pancreatic cancer studies are scheduled to be held at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital. Phase II Results of Rubitecan May 23, 2000 SuperGen, Inc. of San Ramon, California reported results as presented at this year’s annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in New Orleans, of a Phase II clinical trial with rubitecan, its orally administered topoisomerase I inhibitor, indicating that the agent appears to confer survival benefit in patients with refractory pancreatic cancer whom prior chemotherapy has failed. This multi-center study enrolled 58 patients, 90 percent who had failed gemcitabine therapy. Within the 45 patients with measurable disease, four patients were considered partial responders (greater than 50 percent reduction in tumor size) and eleven patients had stable disease (no sign of progression). Among both of these groups, the median survival duration was approximately ten months. The median survival duration among the patients with partial responses was approximately twelve months, and two of these four patients were reported as alive more than twenty months after beginning the rubitecan therapy. Interim Phase II Results for Irofulven May 22, 2000 MGI Parma reported results as presented at this year’s annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in New Orleans, pursuant the interim status of a Phase II clinical trial, that its Irofulven agent appears to demonstrate anti-tumor activity in some patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer whom gemcitabine had failed. This multi-center open label study of fifty patients (46 evaluable) offered 36 assessable patients for the primary endpoint of six-month survival, with seven of these patients achieving a six-month survival benefit and two patients demonstrating objective responses. Aphton's Agent Anti-G17 April 11, 2000 The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted its permission to Aphton Corporation to begin phase III clinical trials of a new agent, anti-G17. Anti-G17 immunogen will be tested against gemcitabine for treatment of metastatic pancreatic cancer. The University of California Los Angeles was chosen as a primary site of the trial. A double blind study of Anti-G17 will also commence in the UK, and is likely to expand throughout Europe.
	These abstracts have been summarized by Pancreatica staff from contemporaneous press releases obtained from newswire services unless otherwise noted in the abstract. They are for educational purposes only and not to be relied upon. Please read Pancreatica Disclaimer
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