PI-88 doubles time to recurrence in high-risk liver cancer patients

New analysis of Phase II data from a trial of Progen Pharmaceuticals' anticancer agent, PI-88, indicates that it significantly increases the time-to-recurrence in liver cancer sufferers considered at high risk of relapse following curative surgery. Patients were excluded from the analysis if, based on prognostic factors, they were deemed likely to complete the 12-month study without experiencing recurrence.

Earlier this year, the Australian biotechnology firm reported that PI-88 conferred a 76% improvement, at the 70th percentile, in post-surgical liver cancer patients regardless of recurrence risk status. The new analysis, presented at this year's meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver disease in Boston, showed that PI-88 doubled the time to recurrence, calculated at the 60th percentile (p=0.0107).

James Garner, Progen's vice president of medical and clinical affairs, said that, because around 50% of untreated liver cancer patients are likely to experience recurrence within a year of surgery, coupled with the trial's focus on examining subjects during this period, nearly half the study population were unable to provide information on PI-88's effect. He added, therefore, that the removal of low-risk patients from the analysis had enabled a more accurate measure of the drug's therapeutic efficacy.