OncoSil Medical (ASX:OSL) has announced positive results of the first comparative analysis of outcomes in patients with unresectable or borderline-resectable locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC) receiving either OncoSil or Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT) in addition to chemotherapy.
The OncoSil device delivers a targeted intratumoural placement of Phosphorous-32 to treat locally advanced unresectable pancreatic cancer. This occurs via injection directly into a patient’s pancreatic tumours under endoscopic ultrasound guidance and takes place in combination with gemcitabine-based chemotherapy
The company said the analysis is the first comparison of these two different forms of radiotherapy. It said the results demonstrate the superiority of OncoSil in extending overall survival, progression-free survival (PFS) and the rate of downstaging and surgical resection.
The retrospective, investigator-initiated analysis examined outcomes in more than 100 patients with LAPC treated over eight years at the Royal Adelaide Hospital in South Australia. Of these patients, 42 received OncoSil plus chemotherapy and 59 received induction chemotherapy followed by SBRT.
The two cohorts of patients were statistically similar in age, sex, performance status, burden of pancreatic cancer and chemotherapy regimen used.
OncoSil said the results demonstrate a significantly prolonged overall survival in patients treated with OncoSil. The analysis revealed a 22-month median survival for OncoSil compared to 14 months for SBRT. The downstaging rate was also significantly greater in patients treated with OncoSil than in SBRT.
Investigators at the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) in South Australia performed the analysis. Dr Amanda Lim, an advanced endoscopy fellow at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre in Boston and an academic researcher from RAH, recently presented it at the Digestive Disease Week scientific meeting in the US.
OncoSil Medical managing director and CEO Nigel Lange said, “The results of this important analysis highlight the superiority of the OncoSil device compared to Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy, which is considered to be the best available system for delivering external beam radiotherapy to patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer. This is also the first study to report on the outcomes following OncoSil in a broad cohort of patients that had either unresectable or borderline-resectable LAPC, indicating the potential for OncoSil treating patients with earlier stages of pancreatic cancer. These data provide further evidence of the efficacy and safety of OncoSil added to standard-of-care chemotherapy.”