Oxigene announces positive phase 1b trial data for use of CA4P against ovarian cancer

New York, Nov. 15 - Oxigene, Inc. said new data from its ongoing phase 1b clinical trial of Combretastatin A4P (CA4P) in combination with either carboplatin, paclitaxel or both demonstrates a positive response in patients with inoperable ovarian cancer.

The results show a 67% response rate among a sub-population of evaluable patients with advanced, inoperable ovarian cancer who were treated with a combination of CA4P and chemotherapy, all of whom had failed previous, alternate cancer treatments.

Oxigene said it believes that the patient response rate observed to date provides an early indication of the potential success of this therapeutic combination as it enters a multi-center international phase 2 clinical trial.

Responses were seen in the tumors of 10 out of 15 patients, and a further four patients saw their disease stabilize during treatment. Partial responses were seen in patients with esophageal cancer and small cell lung cancer.

"This combination of CA4P with either carboplatin or paclitaxel, or both together, is well tolerated and has shown signs of anti-tumor activity in heavily pre-treated patients," said Gordon Rustin, director of medical oncology at Mount Vernon Cancer Centre in the United Kingdom, in a news release. Rustin presented a paper on the data at the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics in Philadelphia.

"It is important to note that these patients have failed previous rounds of alternate therapies but have now responded to this combination therapy of CA4P and chemotherapy. We are eager to move forward into the next level of clinical development in the recently initiated phase 2 trial in platinum resistant ovarian cancer."

CA4P is a type of small molecule drug known as a vascular disrupting agent. It works via two potentially synergistic processes that selectively target pericyte-depleted neovessels, which lack ensheathment from smooth muscle support cells.

Oxigene is a Waltham, Mass., pharmaceutical company developing small-molecule therapeutics to treat cancer and eye diseases.

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