OncoSil Medical (ASX:OSL) has been chosen to join PALACROS, a major European academic consortium aimed at improving outcomes for patients with unresectable locally advanced pancreatic cancer
By participating through its European arm, OncoSil Medical Europe GmbH, the company will contribute the OncoSil device to a dedicated Phase 2 study called PULSE, which runs alongside the consortium's flagship trial.
The PULSE study will randomise 120 patients across five European centres to evaluate whether repeat intratumoural brachytherapy with OncoSil can improve outcomes for patients whose disease remains non-progressive after induction chemotherapy.
The company said it will provide device treatments in kind, which eliminates other study-related costs to OncoSil and is expected to deliver estimated cost savings of approximately $9 million compared with a comparable company-sponsored trial.
The collaboration also gives OncoSil access to clinical data useful for regulatory and commercial purposes, and if trial outcomes support clinical adoption, the company anticipates a multiplier effect for revenue as treated patient volumes increase over time.
The PULSE protocol will compare single-device implantation with repeat implantations every 3 months until disease progression and will assess 9-month local progression-free survival, overall survival, quality of life, safety, conversion to surgery, and health economic outcomes.
The PALACROS consortium brings together leading academic institutions, clinicians, researchers, patient organisations, imaging and artificial intelligence experts and selected industry partners across Europe. It is funded by the European Union under the Horizon Europe research and innovation program.
Nigel Lange, CEO and Managing Director of OncoSil Medical, said, "Being selected to participate in PALACROS is an important validation for OncoSil. What makes this opportunity particularly significant is that PALACROS, which is funded via a grant from the European Union, is an academically driven European consortium bringing together a select group of the world's leading pancreatic cancer centres. The inclusion of OncoSil in this initiative e reflects growing independent clinical interest in our technology and its potential role within future multimodal treatment strategies for locally advanced pancreatic cancer. The dedicated PULSE study provides an important opportunity to evaluate the potential of repeat OncoSil treatment in a robust multicentre academic setting, while contributing to one of Europe's most ambitious collaborative pancreatic cancer research programs."
