New data demonstrates anti-cancer activities of Oncoprex

New data demonstrating the anti-cancer activities of Oncoprex® were presented at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) in Chicago, IL.  The study, "Synergistic antitumor activity of AKT inhibitor MK2206 and FUS1 nanoparticles in LKB1 mutant NSCLC" (Meng J, Lara-Guerra H, Ji L, Roth JA) is authored by a team of investigators from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.  The paper is included in the Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, 2012, Abstract 870.  The preclinical study demonstrates that when Oncoprex is combined with Merck's MK2206, the combination of therapies is more effective in suppressing growth in LKB1 mutant tumors than either of the single agents in animal models bearing H322 LKB1-mutant human lung cancer tumors.  The treatment with the combination of Oncoprex and MK2206 resulted in tumor volume reduction of greater than 2.5 times the tumor reduction achieved with MK2206 alone.

A phase I clinical trial evaluating intravenous Oncoprex monotherapy, also known as FUS1 nanoparticles, demonstrated antitumor activity in lung cancer patients.  Previously published animal studies showed synergistic cancer-killing activity when Oncoprex is combined with a variety of kinase inhibitory agents including erlotinib and gefitinib.  A phase I/II clinical trial evaluating Oncoprex combined with Tarceva® (erlotinib) in lung cancer patients without the EGF receptor mutation or patients who have failed Tarceva therapy will initiate in 2012. 

David J. Tomasso, chief operating and business officer at Genprex commented, "Many patients cannot benefit from targeted cancer therapies due to the patient's genomic characteristics. We are developing Oncoprex combination therapies to expand patient populations benefiting from targeted therapies and to unlock the unrealized potential of a variety of targeted kinase inhibitory drugs. This study broadens the potential application of Oncoprex to include combinations with AKT inhibitors such as MK2206."