The data presented at the American Society of Hematology 47th Annual Meeting and Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia, showed that the drug, enzastaurin, slowed the progression of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) in several patients pretreated with chemotherapy.
The five-year survival rate of US patients with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is only 59% with standard therapies, according to the Lymphoma Research Foundation.
“The use of enzastaurin in relapsed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma is important for two reasons,” said Dr Margaret Shipp, director of Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center’s lymphoma program and the senior investigator in the clinical trial. “One, it represents a rational inhibitor of an identified target and, two, several patients with aggressive chemo-insensitive disease have had prolonged responses to this single, oral agent.”
Enzastaurin inhibits the PKC-Beta, a protein that stimulates cell growth. An over expression of PKC-Beta was identified as being linked to poor outcomes for patients with DLBCL.
In addition, preclinical data indicate that enzastaurin may have additional effects on cutting off the tumor’s blood supply, increasing the natural death of tumor cells and reducing the cell’s ability to reproduce.