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Zeltia’s Yondelis shows promise in ovarian cancer

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Researchers investigating Zeltia’s novel cancer drug Yondelis (ET743, trabectedin) said on Friday that preliminary phase II results show it has promise as a therapy for ovarian cancer patients who no longer respond to other anti-cancer drugs.

The Spanish company has already filed its lead drug in Europe for the treatment of soft tissue sarcoma but phase II clinical trials are also underway to see if it could work against breast, ovarian and endometrial cancer.The drug, derived from marine compounds, can kill cancer cells by p-53 independent apoptosis, interfering with DNA repair pathways and gene transcription.Dr. Gabriella Parma, from the European Institute of Oncology in Milan and colleagues treated 46 patients with advanced ovarian cancer in a phase II trial conducted by the Southern Europe New Drug Organisation.All the women had been previously treated with cisplatin and taxanes but had and later developed progressive cancer. In the trial, the patients were divided into two groups. One group had never responded to therapy. The other group had been treated successfully but had relapsed after 6 months.All the women received an infusion of ET743 every 3 weeks for at least 2 months.The findings, presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology conference in Edinburgh, showed that out of 36 patients evaluated, there was one partial objective response among the 19 refractory patients, and 8 responses (1 complete and 7 partial) in 17 relapsed patients.”ET743 has a unique mechanism of killing tumour cells sometimes even when established drugs have failed,” Dr. Parma said in a statement. “We found that the tumour decreased in some of the patients including one patient who had not previously responded to prior therapies.”The researchers said they were now investigating combining ET-743 with cisplatin or paclitaxel.(Source: Reuters Health: June 20, 2003: Oncolink)


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Posted On: 24 June, 2003
Modified On: 3 December, 2013

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