Oncolytics opens enrollment in REOLYSIN combination U.S. Phase I colorectal cancer study

Jan 10 2011

Oncolytics Biotech Inc. ("Oncolytics") (TSX:ONC, NASDAQ: ONCY) announced today that a U.S. Phase I study of REOLYSIN^® in combination with FOLFIRI (Folinic Acid (leucovorin) + Fluorouracil (5-FU) + Irinotecan) in patients with oxaliplatin refractory/intolerant Kras mutant colorectal cancer (REO 022) is now open to enrollment. The principal investigator is Dr. Sanjay Goel of the Montefiore Medical Center at The Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.

"We continue to advance REOLYSIN into clinical testing in new indications where we believe the product may have sound clinical and commercial potential," said Dr. Brad Thompson, President and CEO of Oncolytics. "We are focusing our clinical program increasingly to look at patients with Kras mutant cancers by either pre-screening patients for Kras status, as in the case of this study and the Phase II trial we are running in non-small cell lung cancer (REO 016), or by selecting indications with widespread Kras involvement, such as our ongoing Phase II study in advanced pancreatic cancer (REO 017)."

The trial is a Phase I dose escalation study with three dose levels, comprising cohorts of three to six patients, to determine a maximum tolerated dose and dose-limiting toxicities with the combination of REOLYSIN and FOLFIRI. FOLFIRI will be administered on the first day of a two week (14-day) cycle, while REOLYSIN will be administered on days one through five of a four week (28-day) cycle.

Eligible patients include those with histologically confirmed cancer of the colon or rectum with Kras mutation and measurable disease. They must have progressed on or within 190 days after last dose of oxaliplatin regimen as front-line therapy in the metastatic setting or be intolerant to oxaliplatin. The study is expected to enroll 12 to 20 patients.

The rationale for conducting the study is based on signals of efficacy seen in a range of preclinical and clinical work with REOLYSIN. This includes a National Cancer Institute screen of seven colorectal cancer cell lines (four with ras mutations), all of which were susceptible to REOLYSIN; preclinical research into the efficacy of REOLYSIN in combination with various chemotherapeutic agents in colorectal cancer cell lines; observation of CEA responses and stable disease in colorectal patients in a phase I study of REOLYSIN as a monotherapy; and interim results from a translational study with REOLYSIN as a monotherapy that is currently ongoing, which showed evidence of viral replication and tumour cell death in four of six patients with metastatic colorectal cancer analyzed to date, two of which had confirmed Kras mutations in codon 12.