On January 10, 2018 RadioMedix Inc. and AREVA Med reported the initiation in the United States of Phase I trial for AlphaMedixTM in patients with somatostatin receptor positive neuroendocrine tumors (Press release, RadioMedix, JAN 10, 2018, View Source [SID1234525019]). AlphaMedixTM is composed of a somatostatin (SST) analogue radiolabeled with 212Pb, an isotope used for Targeted Alpha-emitter Therapy (TAT).

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"Targeted Alpha-emitter Therapy (TAT) is the wave of the future in nuclear oncology and has a tremendous potential to treat patients with NET and overcome some of the limitations of current Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy (PRRT)" said Dr. Ebrahim S. Delpassand, Chairman and CEO of RadioMedix, sponsor of the trial.

"Building on compelling preclinical results, I trust that this study with the combination of our excellent research and clinical teams and AREVA Med’s expertise in 212Pb-labeled radiotherapeutics development, will mark an important milestone in TAT" added Dr. Izabela Tworowska, CSO of RadioMedix.

This open-label, dose escalation study’s objective is to determine safety, bio-distribution, and preliminary effectiveness of 212Pb-AR-RMX in adult patients with differentiated NETs. Patients will be enrolled at Excel Diagnostic and Nuclear Oncology Center (Houston, TX).

"Excel Diagnostics and Nuclear Oncology Center (EDNOC) was the first institution in the United States to conduct a clinical trial using Lu-177 DOTATATE PRRT, making this therapy available to NET patients. EDNOC in continuation of its tradition, will be the first center to pioneer TAT in the U.S." added Dr. Delpassand, Medical Director of EDNOC.

"AREVA Med has for many years been focused on setting up a reliable production of 212Pb and developing therapeutics using this promising isotope. Our collaboration with RadioMedix and this Phase 1 trial is an important accomplishment as we believe that 212Pb-based therapies will have a significant impact on difficult to treat tumors. In this context, AlphaMedixTM could prove to be particularly appropriate for patients suffering from NETs and go beyond limitations of existing treatments" said Julien Dodet, AREVA Med’s CEO.

On January 10, 2018 Intrexon Corporation presented Presentation, dated January 10, 2018 (Presentation, Intrexon, JAN 10, 2018, View Source [SID1234523050]).

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On January 10, 2018 Delcath Systems, Inc. (OTCQB:DCTH), an interventional oncology company focused on the treatment of primary and metastatic liver cancers, reported that it has concluded a modification agreement with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its Phase 3 clinical trial of Melphalan Hydrochloride for Injection for use with the Delcath Hepatic Delivery System (Melphalan/HDS) to treat patients with hepatic dominant ocular melanoma (The FOCUS Trial). The modification agreement revises the FOCUS trial’s eligibility criteria to permit a greater extent of extra-hepatic disease by removing the size restriction, number and location of extra-hepatic lesions, in conjunction with a treatment plan for the extra-hepatic metastases.

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Commenting on the announcement, Jennifer K. Simpson, Ph.D., President and CEO of Delcath Systems, "We requested this protocol modification to improve patient access to this important clinical trial for appropriately selected and managed patients. In an ultra-orphan indication like ocular melanoma, striking the appropriate balance between eligibility criteria and patient access can be a challenge. We are pleased that the FDA agreed to this modification, and hope that once approved by the institutional review boards of our participating clinical trial sites, that this modification will help accelerate enrollment in this registrational trial."

PHP Therapy with Melphalan/HDS was developed by Delcath Systems as a targeted, whole organ therapy for the liver. It is commercially available as a device in Europe, where it is marketed as CHEMOSAT. The system has not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and is undergoing Phase 3 clinical testing in the U.S. as an investigational product.

On January 10, 2018 OncBioMune Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTCQB:OBMP) ("OncBioMune" or the "Company"), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company engaged in the development of a proprietary immunotherapy cancer vaccine technology and targeted cancer therapies, reported the latest follow-up data from the Company’s Phase 1a trial of ProscaVax for prostate cancer (Press release, OncBioMune Pharmaceuticals, JAN 10, 2018, View Source [SID1234523118]). ProscaVax is OncBioMune’s novel immunotherapeutic cancer vaccine consisting of a combination of prostate cancer associated prostate specific antigen (PSA) with the biological adjuvants interleukin-2 (IL-2) and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF).

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In the trial, 20 hormone-naïve and hormone-independent recurrent prostate cancer patients with increasing PSA were treated with six intradermal injections of ProscaVax.

The latest data shows:

14 of 20 (70%) patients have increased PSA Doubling Time (PSADT – the time for serum PSA to double its value and a key metric of disease progression) post-initiation of ProscaVax immunotherapy. This demonstrates a slowing of tumor growth at a minimum of 31 weeks post-initiation of ProscaVax immunotherapy.
15 of 18 patients have increased immunity to PSA at 31 weeks post-initiation of ProscaVax immunotherapy.
Of the 20 patients that completed ProscaVax immunotherapy, 4 patients have shown disease progression at 31 weeks and one patient has chosen to withdraw from the study after week 19 without progression and entered another clinical trial.
As a subset, of the four patients that demonstrated disease progression at 31 weeks, 3 did not have an increase in their PSADT.
"This data continues to build upon an impressive data set from the study indicating that ProscaVax is inhibiting prostate cancer progression in patients that have failed today’s standard therapies. There is a body of evidence in relapsed and advanced prostate cancer patients that slowing the velocity of PSA increase and therefore increasing PSA doubling time has a significant impact on improving prognoses," commented Dr. Jonathan Head, Chief Executive Officer at OncBioMune. "In my view, not only would a therapy that can increase PSADT in a majority of patients obviously be extremely valuable in the therapeutic sense, but there is the possibility that monitoring PSADT can help identify patients that may require additional more aggressive treatment regimens due to inability to decrease PSA velocity. We look forward to mid-stage studies to better understand the clinical benefit of ProscaVax and the opportunity to improve clinical care in this area of unmet medical need."

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Abstract #202913

Clinical significance of high expression of a specific solute carrier transporter in HCC (Abstracts, GenoScience, JAN 10, 2018, View Source [SID1234523060]).

Patricia Gifu, Sonia Brun, Guanxiong Wang, Firas Bassissi, Claude Caron de Fromentel, Philippe Merle, Philippe Halfon; Cancer Research Center of Lyon, Lyon, France; Genoscience Pharma, Marseille, France; Service d’Hepatogastroentérologie, Hôpital de la Croix Rousse, Lyon, France

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third cause of cancer-related death. GNS561 (Genoscience Pharma, France) is a small molecule inducing apoptosis by lysosome inhibition and caspase activation. GNS561 has high hepatotropism and anti-tumorigenic capacity on tumor bulk and cancer stem cells. Its main target is a specific solute carrier transporter (SLCt). We describe here the clinical relevance of the overexpression of SLCt in HCC patients.

Methods: The expression of SLCt was investigated by iQRT-PCR in surgically resected HCC tumors (T) and the matched non-tumor (NT) liver tissues (n = 180) as well as healthy livers (HL) devoid of chronic or acute disease (n = 10). Pearson’s chi-squared test was employed for significant correlation tests while univariate and multivariate survival analysis were performed by Cox proportional hazard ratio (HR) method.

Results: SLCt was overexpressed in 40.5% of T and 30.3% of NT as compared to HL. High SLCt in T was associated with microvascular emboli (p = 0.034) and expression of the cancer stem cell markers Sox2 (p = 0.025) and CD133 (p = 0.034). High SLCt in NT correlated with cirrhosis (p = 0.009) and presence of satellite nodules (p < 0.001). Univariate analysis showed association between high SLCt in T and shortened overall survival (OS) (HR = 1.08, p = 0.020), lower progression-free survival (PFS) (HR = 1.76, p = 0.006) as well as early recurrence-free survival (ERFS) (within 2 years post-surgery) (HR = 1.88, p = 0.008). In multivariate analysis, high SLCt tended to be an independent factor for OS, and this was strongly significant for PFS and ERFS. High SLCt in NT, is quite a poor outcome factor on late recurrence-free survival (HR = 2.33, p = 0.056) together with cirrhosis in univariate analysis, but remained dependent of cirrhosis in multivariate analysis. Late recurrence is linked to the intrinsic tumorigenic status of the liver.

Conclusions: Overexpression of the SLCt in HCC tumors is associated to stemness features and appears as a poor outcome factor impacting on early recurrence. Further, SLCt in NT is associated with development of de-novo HCC. Validation cohorts and prospective assessments are needed to define high SLCt as a potential biomarker of HCC stemness and patient outcome.