Noxopharm (ASX:NOX) has provided further information on the upcoming release of clinical data concerning its lead drug candidate, Veyonda, saying it "now sees an important and exciting story emerging".
The company is developing the drug to boost the effectiveness of two forms of radiation therapy in prostate cancer. In one form, the radiation is delivered externally (DARRT study). In the other, the radiation is injected intravenously (LuPIN study).
The company's latest release of information concerns the LuPIN study. It said a review of recent clinical data "presents compelling evidence" that Veyonda boosts the anti-cancer effect of the intravenous radiopharmaceutical, 177lutetium-PSMA-617 (or 177Lu-PSMA), in men with late-stage prostate cancer.
177Lu-PSMA is an experimental radioactive drug that is currently in a phase 3 study.
A major aim of the LuPIN study is to see if Veyonda can boost the effectiveness of 177Lu-PSMA radiation therapy so that more men are able to complete their full course of radiation treatment before their cancer progresses.
In the first study, 14 patients were treated with 177Lu-PSMA alone, reporting a PSA (Prostate-Specific Antigen) response (a fall in PSA levels in blood of greater than 50 per cent) of 36 per cent.
In the second study, patients were treated with 177Lu-PSMA in combination with Veyonda, reporting a PSA response of 69 per cent.
Progression-free survival in the 177Lu-PSMA arm was two months compared to 8.4 months in the arm with Veyonda.
According to Noxopharm executive chairman, Graham Kelly, “This is exciting data because anti-cancer drug trials rarely deliver such significant improvements in response rates. Veyonda has more than tripled the number of men able to stay on this kind of radiation treatment, and we would expect that to translate into longer survival times, which is supported by the data showing Veyonda providing an overall quadrupling of the time until the cancer resumed growing.”