Sunesis Pharma says SNS-314 has broad anti-tumor activity

California, USA-based Sunesis Pharmaceuticals has presented non-clinical data on its development-stage compound, SNS-314, at two leading scientific meetings focused on targeted anticancer medicines, showing that, in vitro and in vivo studies demonstrate that the compound is a selective inhibitor of Aurora kinases with consistently potent anti-tumor activity across a number of cancer types.

"Based on the data presented at Targeted Anticancer Therapies 2007 and the Keystone Symposia Molecular Targets for Cancer meetings, we believe that SNS-314 has a compelling preclinical profile and merits full clinical development. In diverse xenograft models, this anticancer agent demonstrates good activity that is linked to mechanistic markers of Aurora inhibition," said Daniel Adelman, senior vice president, R&D, at Sunesis. "The results reported from our non-clinical studies of SNS-314 are impressive, and we are looking forward to starting the Phase I dose-escalating clinical study of SNS-314 in patients with advanced solid tumors in the second quarter. In this trial, patients will receive three weekly doses of SNS-314 in a four-week dosing regimen," he added.