DelMar presents pre-clinical study data that evaluates activity of VAL-083 in drug-resistant NSCLC

DelMar Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTCQB: DMPI) ("DelMar") today announced the presentation of new data in a poster entitled, "In vivo efficacy of VAL-083 in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer."  DelMar's data was presented on Sunday, April 6, 2014 during the Novel Cytotoxic Strategies Session at the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) in San Diego.

VAL-083 is a structurally unique bi-functional alkylating agent approved for treatment of lung cancer in China and has documented activity against non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in historical clinical trials sponsored by the United States National Cancer Institute.

The purpose of this pre-clinical study was to evaluate the activity of VAL-083 in in vivo models of drug-resistant NSCLC in comparison to cisplatin.

In an established murine xenograft model of NSCLC, the activity of VAL-083 was compared to standard platinum-based therapy with cisplatin against human NSCLC cell lines A549 (TKI-sensitive) and H1975 (TKI-resistant).  In the study, VAL-083 demonstrated superior efficacy and safety in the treatment of TKI-susceptible (A549) tumors and in TKI-resistant (H1975) tumors.

• Treatment of TKI-sensitive (A549) NSCLC with 3 mg/kg of VAL-083 resulted in tumor growth delay of 26 days compared to untreated controls.  Cisplatin (5 mg/kg) resulted in tumor growth delay of just four days.  In addition, mean tumor volume on day 68 was significantly reduced in animals treated with 3 mg/kg VAL-083 (p=0.001) compared to untreated control.
• Treatment of TKI-resistant (H1975) NSCLC with 4 mg/kg of VAL-083 resulted in a statistically significant reduction in tumor volume (p = 0.01) versus untreated control after 27 days. In the same model, treatment with 5 mg/kg of cisplatin failed to achieve statistically significant reduction in tumor volume (p = 0.23) versus untreated control after 27 days.  Longer-term safety assessments are ongoing in this model.

Jeffrey Bacha, president & CEO of DelMar said, "These data suggest that VAL-083 may be a viable treatment option for NSCLC patients failing TKI-therapy, especially where platinum-based therapy has already failed or is predicted to give sub-optimal outcomes." 

"These important results have immediate implications in the treatment of NSCLC in China, where VAL-083 is approved for as a chemotherapy for the treatment of lung cancer.  The data also support exploring future clinical development of VAL-083 as a lung cancer therapy in the rest of the world thereby providing DelMar with a potential opportunity to expand our clinical development focus beyond glioblastoma."

The treatment of non-small cell lung cancer remains an unmet medical need.  The median overall survival time for patients with stage IV non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is four months, and one- and five-year survival is less than 16% and 2%, respectively.

Standard of care for NSCLC is surgery followed by treatment with either tyrosine kinase Inhibitors (TKIs) such as Tarceva® or platinum-based regimens. TKIs have resulted in vastly improved outcomes for many patients; however, TKI resistance has emerged as a significant unmet medical need, and long-term prognosis with platinum-based therapies remains poor.  Additionally, the incidence of NSCLC spreading to the brain is high with very poor prognosis.

VAL-083 is currently undergoing a DelMar sponsored clinical trial in the United States as a potential new treatment for refractory glioblastoma.  DelMar will present an update on this ongoing clinical trial during the Early Phase Clinical Trials 2 session on Wednesday, April 9, 2014, 8:00 am to 12:00 pm.  A link to the abstract can be found here: DMPI GBM AACR2014.

Source: DelMar Pharmaceuticals, Inc.