Dr Agop Bedikian, the lead author on the paper, said: “This was the first trial to achieve such a broad array of positive endpoints. I believe the aggregate data indicate that Genasense can be a major addition to chemotherapy for patients with this disease, with a side-effect profile that is highly manageable.”
Genasense, Genta's lead anticancer drug, is a novel targeted therapy that blocks the production of Bcl-2, a protein that appears to be a fundamental cause of resistance to cancer treatment. By knocking down Bcl-2 in cancer cells, Genasense may enhance the effectiveness of chemotherapy in patients with advanced melanoma.