Sunesis cancer drug SNS-595 stabilized 29% of patients in phase 1 study

By Angela McDaniels

Seattle, Nov. 17 - Sunesis Pharmaceuticals 1nc. said positive results from its phase 1 clinical trial of SNS-595 in patients with advanced solid tumor malignancies demonstrate evidence of the drug's sustained disease control among a variety of tumor types.

One patient experienced partial response and 12 patients (29%) stabilized for more than 12 weeks, the company said.

The data was presented at the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer, National Cancer Institute and American Association for Cancer Research International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics in Philadelphia.

The open-label, multicenter trial was designed to examine the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of escalating doses of SNS-595. Forty-one patients received increasing doses of SNS-595 by intravenous injection every three weeks for up to six cycles.

SNS-595 was well-tolerated and pharmacokinetics were highly reproducible and consistent across patients, the company said. The study also found that SNS-595 has potential for use in combination with other drugs.

SNS-595 is a first-in-class cytotoxin that acts during the S phase of the cell reproduction to induce the rapid death of cells that are actively synthesizing DNA.

SNS-595 will soon enter phase 2 clinical trials in lung cancer.

South San Francisco, Calif.-based Sunesis is a biopharmaceutical company that develops small molecule therapeutics for oncology and other serious diseases.

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