28 September 2011Alchemia’s Cancer Treatment Shows EarlyPromise...

28 September 2011
Alchemia’s Cancer Treatment Shows Early
Promise in Lung Cancer Trial
Alchemia, Brisbane, Australia (ASX: ACL): Alchemia’s lead cancer product from its HyACT®
technology, HA-Irinotecan, was featured on Channel Seven News at 6pm yesterday in most regions,
and was also featured on Seven’s Sunrise program this morning (Wednesday 28th September) at
6.45am. The first two Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC) patients who received HA-Irinotecan have
responded very rapidly to the first dose, experiencing substantial shrinkage of their tumours after
only ten days. Both patients were treated as part of a Phase II clinical study conducted at Monash
Cancer Centre.
The Principal Investigator of the trial Dr Vinod Ganju said: “We are excited by these early
responses to treatment, mostly because of the speed of the tumour regressions. Typically we would
anticipate achieving a measurable response to therapy after one to two months of treatment but, in
the case of the patients treated with HA-Irinotecan, we could measure tumour shrinkage in a matter
of days.”
Alchemia Oncology’s Chief Scientific Officer, Professor Tracey Brown described these early
responses as “extremely encouraging” whilst emphasizing that the effectiveness of the treatment
will need to be confirmed with further patient data. “The rapidity of the responses is consistent with
results from preclinical studies of HA-Irinotecan in lung cancer,” she added.
The current study is examining the effectiveness of HA-Irinotecan, which utilises Alchemia’s
patented HyACT® technology to target the anti-cancer drug irinotecan to the tumour. Patients are
randomized to receive either HA-Irinotecan or irinotecan. The parameters that are being assessed
include safety and measures of effectiveness such as Progression-Free Survival (PFS). In addition,
the study will assess the impact of the treatments on circulating tumour cells (the number of cancer
cells detected in the blood) and certain cell populations such as cancer stem cells in the tumour.
Alchemia’s HyACT platform works by delivering a higher concentration of the drug to the tumour
and enhancing the uptake of the drug by cancer cells. It achieves this by targeting the drug to a
specific protein, CD44, that is expressed at high levels by the cells in solid cancers such as breast,
lung and colorectal. The technology has been shown to enhance the activity of a broad range of
drugs across a number of preclinical models of different cancers. An earlier Phase II study in
colorectal cancer with HA-Irinotecan showed a statistically significant improvement in progressionfree
survival compared with irinotecan (20.8 vs 9.6 weeks, p=0.017). Recruitment to a pivotal Phase
III study in colorectal cancer is expected to commence in 2011.