OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a clinical-stage company developing novel
therapeutics that target cancer, today announced the online publication
in Clinical Cancer Research of preclinical data demonstrating the
potent anti-cancer activity of anti-DLL4 (demcizumab) in patient-derived
pancreatic tumor models. Demcizumab, the company's first Notch pathway
product candidate, is currently in Phase 1b clinical testing. The paper
entitled "Anti-DLL4 Has Broad Spectrum Activity in Pancreatic Cancer
Dependent on Targeting DLL4-Notch Signaling in Both Tumor and
Vasculature Cells" was published online September 5, 2012.
"Our data suggests that inhibiting the Notch pathway with anti-DLL4 has
the potential to improve treatment of pancreatic cancer," said Tim Hoey,
Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Cancer Biology at OncoMed Pharmaceuticals
and a co-author of the paper. "Anti-DLL4 has demonstrated preclinical
activity in a panel of patient-derived pancreatic tumors and inhibits
tumor growth through multiple mechanisms including the ability to reduce
cancer stem cell frequency. We think that this effect on cancer stem
cells is an important attribute of demcizumab and could be very
beneficial in the treatment of pancreatic cancer, an indication where it
has been very difficult to develop effective new therapies."
"Demcizumab is our most advanced clinical molecule," said Paul Hastings,
OncoMed's President and Chief Executive Officer. "We have learned a
great deal from our preclinical and more recent, clinical development
experience with demcizumab. We look forward to opportunities to present
our findings to the clinical community on this molecule as well as the
other potential first-in-class therapeutics in our pipeline that target
key cancer stem cell pathways."
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