Genta said use of Genasense could expand as studies show it increases anti-cancer activity in Tarceva

By E. Janene Geiss

Philadelphia, Nov. 15 - Genta Inc. said that scientific data showed intermittent administration of Genasense by bolus injection significantly increased the anti-cancer activity in erlotinib, even in cancers that were not sensitive to erlotinib.

These results could greatly expand the use of Genasense, officials said in a company news release.

Genasense inhibits a key chemotherapy resistance factor, officials said. Prior studies of Genasense combined with chemotherapy focused on regimens that were administered every three weeks. But many of the Genasense dosing schedules that demonstrated increased activity were difficult to employ in practice, especially when combined with therapies that were given daily or several times per week, such as interferon, rituximab, erlotinib and radiation, officials said.

In animal models of human non-small cell lung cancer, investigators evaluated Genasense given both continually as well as every second, third or fourth day. Intermittent doses demonstrated significant activity when given alone in this model, whereas erlotinib, marketed by OSI Pharmaceuticals as Tarceva, alone exhibited little activity. However, the combination of Genasense plus erlotinib was superior to either agent alone. Investigators found that the optimal schedule of Genasense used with daily erlotinib was shown to be discontinuous dosing every three days, which yielded 90% survival at 100 days.

"The new findings may enable practical applications of Genasense with a variety of multi-dose anticancer therapies, such as temozolomide and interferon in melanoma, rituximab in lymphoma, tyrosine kinase inhibitors in lung cancer and radiation therapy," Bob Brown, Genta's vice president for research and technology, said in the release.

The findings were presented Tuesday at the annual International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics.

Genta, based in Berkeley Heights, N.J., is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing products for the treatment of cancer.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.