Phase
I Trial with Irofulven and Taxotere
September 25, 2001
MGI Pharma has announced that
a Phase I clinical trial has begun with its agent Irofulven in
combination with the Aventis agent Taxotere (docetaxel) against
advanced cancers involving an enrollment of up to 36 patients.
R 115777
Begins Phase III Clinical Trials
September 17, 2001
Janssen-Cilag has announced that
its agent R 115777, a farnesyl transferase inhibitor, has begun
Phase III clinical trials in patients with pancreatic cancer.
Tumor
Suppressor Gene plus Ras Blocker: Apoptosis in Pancreatic Cancer
Cells
August 28, 2001
Dr. Paul Fisher of Columbia University
in New York (and colleagues) presented a paper entitled, “A
combinational approach for selectively inducing programmed cell
death in human pancreatic cancer cells,” as published in
the current Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The study reports that mda-7 (a tumor suppressor gene) together
with a small stretch of a DNA-protein-construct aimed at blocking
the k-ras oncogene, killed pancreatic cancer cells in vitro.
Previous experiments had led the researchers to postulate that
k-ras activity had been inactivating the function of mda-7. Dr.
Fisher indicated that this approach “could open up brand-new
windows of investigation and potential clinical applications.”
Virulizin
Phase III Trial Protocol Expanded
August 7, 2001
Lorus Therapeutics announced
that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a Phase
III protocol against pancreatic cancer for its immunotherapeutic
agent Virulizin whereby Virulizin plus gemcitabine will be evaluated
in comparison to gemcitabine alone. Additionally, patients who
exhibit disease progression or intolerance in the gemcitabine
arm of the study will be offered Virulizin plus 5-FU versus 5-FU
alone. The recruitment goal for the study is 350 patients.
Phase I Study with Triapine and Gemcitabine Begins
August 2, 2001
Enrollment recently began for
the Phase I clinical trial with the combination of Vion Pharmaceutical’s
ribonucleotide reductase inhibitor agent Triapine together with
gemcitabine for patients with advanced and metastatic cancer
at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California.
Recommended
Dose for BBR 3464 (Phase I results)
July 30, 2001
Novuspharma announced the completion
of three phase I clinical trials involving the unique tri-nuclear
platinum complex BBR 3464, with a recommended dosing regimen
established at 0.9/M2 every three weeks. The dose limiting toxicity
appeared to be bone marrow suppression. This compound is being
further investigated in phase II trials for pancreatic, ovarian,
gastric and lung cancers.
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