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news.AstraZeneca's experimental cancer drug AZD6244 has shown a stabilizing effect on patients with advanced solid cancer tumors in preliminary trials, and is now being tested in phase II clinical trials.
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The drug, which AstraZeneca has in-licensed from Array BioPharma, inhibits MEK 1/2, an enzyme which regulates cell proliferation and survival. Activation of this pathway has been implicated in a number of cancers including lung, pancreatic, colon, melanoma and thyroid cancer.
Professor Alex Adjei, who oversaw the study at the Mayo Clinic, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and Fox Chase Cancer Center, said: “Results from this second part of the trial demonstrate that a dose of 100mg of AZD6244 is well tolerated, produces a high incidence of long-lasting stable disease, and is associated with a profound inhibition of the cell signaling protein pERK and a reduction in cell proliferation – which indicates that the drug is working against the tumors.”
The researchers tested biopsy tissue taken from the patients both before and after dosing. They found that the pERK protein was reduced by 77%. They also looked at another protein, Ki-67, which is used as a marker for cell proliferation. After dosing, there was a reduction in Ki-67 in nine out of 20 patients, and in five of those nine patients the reduction was at least 50% or more.