Australian oncology company Kazia Therapeutics (ASX:KZA) has released interim data from its ongoing phase 2 study of GDC-0084 in glioblastoma, the most common and most aggressive form of primary brain cancer.
This data is the subject of a poster presentation at the recently held annual meeting of the Society for Neuro-Oncology (SNO) in the US.
Nine patients participated in Stage 1 of the study with eight evaluable for efficacy. The company said progression-free survival (PFS) in this initial group of patients was 8.4 months. The existing standard of care, temozolomide, has a reported PFS of around 5.3 months, it said.
It said overall survival (OS) could not yet be calculated, with 75 per cent of evaluable patients still alive at the cut-off date for analysis.
"In aggregate, these early results provide a strong signal that GDC-0084 may provide clinical benefit in this patient population," it said.
According to Professor Patrick Wen from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, who was the lead author on the poster presentation, “There is an urgent need for new therapies in glioblastoma. GDC-0084 has the potential to be an important new addition to the treatment of this very challenging disease. My colleagues and I look forward to examining further data as the study progresses.”
Kazia CEO, Dr James Garner, added, “This is early ‘first look’ data from the study, representing around a third of the total patients to be enrolled, but it has already exceeded our expectations. We see a clear signal that GDC-0084 is providing clinical benefit in this group of patients. Although it has not yet been possible to calculate overall survival, the fact that the majority of patients in the first stage of the study remain alive more than a year after diagnosis suggests that a meaningful OS benefit may emerge as the study matures. That would be a remarkable finding.”