Ph II NSCLC ASA404 trial supports earlier findings

UK-based drug developer Antisoma says that data from a study of its anticancer agent ASA404, presented at the World Conference on Lung Cancer in Seoul, South Korea, indicate that the drug is of benefit when combined with chemotherapy in patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

In the single arm Phase II trial, NSCLC patients were given an 1,800mg/m2 dose of the drug in combination with carboplatin and paclitaxel chemotherapy. Median survival was 14.9 months, while the average time to disease progression was 5.5 months with an overall tumor response rate of 37.9%.

Antisoma said that, although the program was not comparative, the findings support those from an earlier placebo-controlled Phase II study in which patients treated with 1,200mg/m2 of AS404 and chemotherapy achieved median survival of 14.0 months, compared with 8.8 months in the chemotherapy only group. In addition, the tumor response rate in the AS404 plus chemotherapy treated arm was 31.2%, versus 22.2% in the control cohort.