Success for New Drug in Phase I Mesothelioma Clinical Trials -- MesoLink.org -- 07-01-04

A new anti-angiogenesis drug developed by researchers at the Keck School of Medicine in Southern California has proven successful through Phase I mesothelioma clinical trials, it was reported last week. The drug, called Veglin, appears to be safe for patients with a variety of cancers.

It was shown to lower levels of a particular protein in the blood that tumours feed on, thus stabilizing the tumour and sometimes reversing it.

Professor of Medicine and Chief of Haematology at Keck, Alexandra Levine, stated: “Veglin continues to show its safety, even though we've escalated the dose significantly. Blood levels of key enzymes we are targeting also have gone down in a fair number of cases and we are pleased so far."

Phase I Veglin trials began in 2003, and tests were carried out on patients with malignancies that had not responded to other treatments. Researchers reported that this drug reduced cancerous tissue for several months in many of the patients. And despite large drug increases, no toxic side effects were apparent.

Many of the patients in the trial also benefited through stabilization of their tumours, which included lymphoma, renal cell carcinoma and multiple myeloma.

Professor Levine also stated: "We have seen tumour shrinkage and stabilization in diverse disease types. These are good indications for a single agent. In the future, optimally we would combine it with other drugs ."

Clinical trials will now move on to Phase II, and these will be tested on patients with renal cell carcinoma, mesothelioma, leukaemia, and lymphoma.