Genta announces progress with anti-cancer drug

Genta, a biopharmaceutical company based in New Jersey, US, has presented preclinical results showing that intermittent administration of its anticancer drug Genasense by bolus injection 'significantly increased' the anticancer activity of erlotinib (Tarceva), even in cancers that were not sensitive to erlotinib.

Using murine models of human non-small cell lung cancer, Genasense was dosed continuously, and every second, third or fourth day. Intermittent doses demonstrated 'significant activity' when given alone, while erlotinib alone exhibited 'little activity'. The optimal schedule employed both therapies in discontinuous dosing every three days, which yielded 90% survival at 100 days.

Prior studies of Genasense, which is used to inhibit Bcl-2, a chemotherapy resistance factor, combined it with chemotherapy focused on regimens that were administered every three weeks, and many of the dosing schedules that demonstrated increased activity were difficult to employ in practice, especially when combined with therapies that were given daily or several times per week, such as interferon, rituximab, erlotinib, and radiation.

'These preliminary studies may greatly extend the utility of Genasense,' said Dr. Bob Brown, vice president for research and technology at Genta. 'The new findings may enable practical applications with a variety of multi-dose anticancer therapies, such as temozolomide and interferon in melanoma, rituximab in lymphoma, tyrosine kinase inhibitors in lung cancer, and radiation therapy.'