Encouraging Ph III data for glufosfamide

The USA's Threshold Pharmaceuticals has reported encouraging detailed results from a Phase III trial of glufosfamide at the annual European Cancer Conference, held in Barcelona, Spain. In previous studies, the agent showed that the overall survival in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer who had relapsed after gemcitabine chemotherapy was 18% higher in the glufosfamide arm compared to those who received best supportive care, but the result did not reach statistical significance. Detailed analysis of the data from that study suggests that glufosfamide is active in certain subgroups of patients, noted the firm.

Data from a multi-national, randomized, open-label Phase III, 303-patient trial, presented at ECCO, showed that the median survival with glufosfamide was 105 days (3.45 months) versus 84 days (2.76 months) on BSC for metastatic pancreatic cancer patients who had relapsed after standard gemcitabine-containing systemic chemotherapy.

In general, patients with better prognosis showed a greater treatment effect than those with poorer prospects. Surprisingly, however, a subgroup of diabetic patients taking glucose-lowering agents (primarily sulfonylureas) indicated much improved survival with glufosfamide, noted Threshold.