Exelixis, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXEL) today reported interim data from the cohort of patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer, primary peritoneal, or fallopian tube carcinoma treated with XL184 in an ongoing phase 2 adaptive randomized discontinuation trial (RDT). Ignace Vergote, M.D., Ph.D., Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Gynaecologic Oncology at the University Hospital Leuven, Leuven, Belgium will present the data in the Molecular-Targeted Therapies-Clinical Trials poster session (Abstract #407) on Thursday, November 18th, at the 22nd EORTC-NCI-AACR Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics in Berlin, Germany.
“I believe these encouraging data warrant further evaluation of XL184 in ovarian cancer.”
XL184 Activity in Patients with Ovarian Cancer
As of the November 1, 2010 cut-off date, a total of 51 patients were enrolled into the ovarian cancer cohort, with 31 evaluable for response, and 41 evaluable for safety. The median number of prior systemic treatments was 2. Tumor shrinkage was observed in 30 of 37 (81%) patients with measurable metastatic lesions. Of 31 patients evaluable for response per RECIST, 10 (32%) achieved a confirmed partial response (PR). Stable disease (SD) was reported in 15 patients (48%) including 3 patients who achieved unconfirmed PRs. The overall week-12 disease control rate (DCR) was 64%.
Upon subset analysis, 5 of 17 platinum-refractory or -resistant patients (29%) evaluable for response per RECIST achieved a confirmed PR. SD was reported in 7 patients (41%) including 2 patients with unconfirmed PRs. The week-12 DCR was 59% in platinum-resistant/refractory patients. Durable responses have been observed, including 2 patients with platinum-refractory or resistant disease who remain on study for 34+ and 36+ weeks, and 3 patients with platinum-sensitive disease on study for 24, 24+, and 28+ weeks. Some patients have experienced reductions in the ovarian cancer blood marker CA125, but in general no clear concordance between CA125 changes and tumor shrinkage has been observed.
Safety data are available for 49 patients who had at least 6 weeks of follow-up. The most common Grade ≥ 3 adverse events, regardless of causality were PPE syndrome (12%), diarrhea (7%), fatigue, vomiting (each 5%), nausea, rash, abdominal pain, hypertension, and hypomagnesemia (each 2%).
"The activity of XL184 in women with both platinum-sensitive and platinum-resistant/refractory disease is unique and encouraging. The response rate and overall disease control rate of this oral agent are impressive especially in the group of patients with platinum refractory/resistant ovarian cancer, and compare favorably to other targeted and systemic agents in development," said, Dr. Vergote. "I believe these encouraging data warrant further evaluation of XL184 in ovarian cancer."
"The high response rate in patients with ovarian cancer is reflective of the broad anti-tumor activity of XL184 observed in multiple tumor types to date," said Michael M. Morrissey, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Exelixis. "The data from the RDT underscore the novel and differentiated clinical activity of XL184 in diverse tumor indications with predominance of either soft tissue or bone involvement."
To access the clinical data poster mentioned in this press release, please visit www.exelixis.com.
Broad Clinical Activity of XL184 - Randomized Discontinuation Trial
XL184 has demonstrated anti-tumor activity in 9 of 12 indications studied to date. In ongoing trials, compelling activity has been observed in medullary thyroid cancer, glioblastoma, and clear cell renal cancer. In the RDT, XL184 is being evaluated in nine different tumor types, with clear signals of activity in six: prostate, ovarian, hepatocellular, breast, non-small cell lung cancer and melanoma. The adaptive RDT design allowed for rapid simultaneous assessment of the activity of XL184 across nine different tumor indications. As of the November 1, 2010 cut-off date, a total of 397 patients have been enrolled into the nine disease-specific cohorts, with 273 evaluable for response, and 312 evaluable for safety. Of 273 patients evaluable for response per RECIST, 39 achieved a PR (either confirmed or unconfirmed) and 100 had SD at week 12. The week-12 DCR for the overall population was 49%, with the highest rates occurring in hepatocellular cancer (75%), castration-resistant prostate cancer (71%), ovarian cancer (64%), melanoma (45%), non-small cell lung cancer (42%) and breast cancer (42%). Of note, a breast cancer patient with evidence of bone metastasis on bone scan demonstrated evidence of resolution on bone scan accompanied by 29% reduction in tumor size. XL184 has been generally well tolerated with a consistent adverse event profile across the nine different RDT tumor types.
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