Xconomy: Calistoga Cancer Drug Shows "Encouraging" Preliminary Results in Small Study
Summary
Calistoga Cancer Drug Shows “Encouraging” Preliminary Results in Small Study (Page 2 of 2) found that 15 of 16 evaluable patients on the drug had at least a 50 percent shrinkage of their lymph nodes, but some of them actually had increases in their lymphatic cell counts in the bloodstream.This has prompted Calistoga and its scientific advisors to hypothesize that CAL-101 is essentially able to burrow deep into the bulky tumors of the lymphatic system and the bone marrow, get past the natural defense mechanisms tumors employ in that cellular environment, and flush them out into the circulating bloodstream.It’s also got the company thinking about designing combination studies that might use CAL-101 to shake loose the bulky tumors in the lymph nodes, and give patients rituximab (Rituxan) when that drug has the best chance to work on cancer cells in the bloodstream, Gallagher says.The company expects to have data from 80 to 90 patients from various cohorts of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, indolent (slow-growing) non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, aggressive non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, acute myeloid leukemia, and multiple myeloma, Gallagher says.Based on that more full set of data, Calistoga plans to start a Phase II/III study that could be used for a new drug application to the FDA, Gallagher says.