GenSpera’s onco prodrug shows promise for patients with advanced HCC

GenSpera, a leader in developing prodrug therapeutics for the treatment of cancer, has released the APPLE 2014 presentation. Devalingam Mahalingam, Principal Investigator of the G-202 phase II trial in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients, recently presented the HCC clinical trial update for G-202 at the 5th Asia-Pacific Primary Liver Cancer Expert Meeting in Taipei, Taiwan.

Mahalingam, an oncologist at the Cancer Therapy & Research Center at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, presented interim results from the phase Ib and ongoing phase II study in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients who had previously progressed on, or who were intolerant of, sorafenib. Historically, this patient population has a median time to progression of only two months when they enter subsequent clinical trials.

Impressively, 80 per cent of patients treated with G-202 had stable disease (no tumour growth) at two months and 50 per cent of patients exhibited stable disease at four months on study.

“The efficacy and safety analyses on patients enrolled to date on this study continue to demonstrate that G-202 holds promise for patients with advanced HCC, with half the patients showing disease stability at four months and the majority of patients tolerating G-202 with minimal toxicities,” stated Mahalingam.

“DCE-MRI is a sophisticated imaging technique that allows us to assess effects of G-202 on tumour blood flow characteristics,” said Dr Craig Dionne, Chief Executive Officer, GenSpera.

Dionne continued, “These positive results enable management to remain optimistic about our ambitious G-202 clinical development programme which is expanding into glioblastoma, prostate cancer and renal cell carcinoma trials. Although still in early stages, we believe this clinical strategy will continue to build significant value in G-202 and in the company. We are particularly excited by the potential that G-202 is showing as a treatment for patients with liver cancer, a market which is expected to be at $1.5 billion by 2019.”

EP News Bureau – Mumbai