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news.London, UK-based Antisoma claims that new data suggests that its antibody drug AS1402, which is currently being prepared for phase II trials in breast cancer, has been found to increase the effectiveness of white blood cells fighting against cancer cells.
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Antisoma says that the new data highlights the key role of white blood cells called natural killer (NK) cells in the action of the drug.
A team from the VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, took white blood cells from healthy donors and added them to cultures of breast cancer cells together with the AS1402 antibody. Donor samples that were richer in NK cells were clearly best at supporting killing of the cancer cells.
Commenting on the findings Glyn Edwards, Antisoma’s CEO, said: “We continue to gain new insights into how AS1402 harnesses the human immune system to attack tumor cells. Our forthcoming phase II study will look at how these actions could translate into benefits for patients with breast cancer.”
The data was presented at the 16th European Congress of Immunology in Paris, France.
Results of a phase I study of AS1402 in metastatic breast cancer were reported at the ASCO meeting this June. These results showed that the drug was well tolerated at all doses tested, with a number of patients who had relapsed after previous chemotherapy showing prolonged stable disease.