Gloucester Pharmaceuticals announced today the presentation of
preclinical data demonstrating that the combination of ISTODAX®
(romidepsin) and Velcade® (bortezomib) resulted in
synergistic anti-tumor activity in B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma cell
lines. ISTODAX is a member of a new class of cancer drugs known as
histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors. The results were presented during
a poster presentation entitled, “The Combination of Romidepsin and
Bortezomib Results in Synergistic Induction of Apoptosis in Human
B-Lymphoma Cell Lines” at the 51st American Society of Hematology (ASH)
Annual Meeting being held in New Orleans, LA.
“The results in this in vitro combination study of ISTODAX and
Velcade suggest this may be an important clinical combination to test in
patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell malignancies,” said Sagar
Lonial, MD, Associate Professor, Hematology and Medical Oncology at
Emory University School of Medicine and an author of the study. “We are
currently conducting mechanistic studies with the goal of identifying
predictors of response that can be validated in prospective clinical
trials and look forward to presenting these results at a future
scientific meeting.”
“ISTODAX has been studied extensively in T-cell lymphomas and was
recently approved by the FDA for the treatment of cutaneous T-cell
lymphoma in patients who have received at least one prior systemic
therapy,” said Jean Nichols, PhD, President and Chief Operating Officer
of Gloucester Pharmaceuticals. “These preclinical results in B-cell
lymphoma cell lines build on previous work presented in multiple myeloma
and suggest that the combination of ISTODAX and Velcade may have a
potential role in the broader hematologic space and merit additional
study.”
Study Results: