Forty-four late-stage lung cancer patients who had not received prior chemotherapy were randomized to one of three groups for six months of treatment with the drug.
The study showed that 11 out of 16 (69%) patients treated subcutaneously with NOV-002 in combination with chemotherapy demonstrated greater than 50% tumor shrinkage versus only five out of fifteen (33%) in the control group that only received chemotherapy.
“We are very encouraged by such positive results in a relatively small phase I/2 study,” said Dr Christopher Pazoles, vice president of R&D of Novelos Therapeutics. “The study revealed statistically significant improvement in a number of important efficacy measures after treatment with NOV-002 in combination with chemotherapy compared to chemotherapy alone.”
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the US. Lung cancer is expected to be diagnosed in approximately 175,000 people, and be responsible for about 165,000 deaths in 2005.