Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: PPHMD) today announced that a newly published study shows that a phosphatidylserine (PS)-targeting antibody similar to the company's lead product candidate bavituximab demonstrated potent anti-tumor activity when combined with radiation in a model of aggressive brain cancer, doubling the survival time of test animals and producing long-term cures. The study also provides further evidence that the anti-cancer activity of bavituximab and other PS-targeting antibodies reflects multiple novel mechanisms. Bavituximab is currently in Phase II clinical trials for the treatment of advanced breast cancer and advanced lung cancer. The new study is available in the current on-line edition of Clinical Cancer Research.
"This important new study provides additional scientific evidence that PS-targeting antibodies, including bavituximab, employ multiple novel mechanisms to mobilize the immune system to combat cancer and that these mechanisms are enhanced by concurrent radiation therapy," said Steven W. King, president and CEO of Peregrine. "The potent anti-tumor effects observed in this study, which used an extremely challenging preclinical model of brain cancer, are very impressive. These results provide a strong rationale for conducting future clinical trials of bavituximab in combination with radiation for the treatment of glioblastoma and other brain cancers."
The new study was designed to assess whether treatment with an antibody equivalent of bavituximab combined with radiotherapy can suppress tumor growth in a model of glioblastoma, the deadliest form of brain cancer. It used an especially aggressive tumor line that behaves very much like glioblastoma when injected into the brains of test animals. Results showed that the combination of a bavituximab equivalent and radiotherapy more than doubled the median survival time of test animals and 13% were rendered disease free, an unexpected outcome with this type of tumor. The combination treatment was significantly superior to either radiotherapy or treatment with the bavituximab equivalent alone.