Endocyte has reported the results from phase II clinical study of EC145. The single arm phase II study evaluated the therapeutic agent, EC145 and the molecular imaging agent, EC20 in 42 patients with advanced adenocarcinoma of the lung.
The primary objective of the clinical trial was to determine the percentage of patients who derived clinical benefit from therapy with EC145, where clinical benefit was defined as completing four months of therapy without disease progression. The study showed that at least 30% of all patients treated with EC145 has benefited from therapy .
In the study, EC20, a targeted molecular diagnostic imaging agent, was used to identify patients whose tumors expressed the folate receptor, the target of EC145. An analysis of EC20 positive patients receiving EC145 as third or fourth line therapy, indicated a clinical benefit rate of 45%.
Richard Messmann, vice president of medical affairs at Endocyte, said: We are encouraged by the positive results that indicate treatment with EC145 may provide clinical benefit to a large percentage of patients with advanced-stage lung cancer.
As cancer care enters the age of personalized therapy, it is important to see drug pairs like EC20 and EC145 proceed to the next stage of clinical development. The idea of using a molecular diagnostic imaging agent like EC20 to select patients, followed by treatment with EC145, is exciting because doctors may be able to customize patient care in a way that has not occurred in the past. The fact that most patients who received EC145 also had minimal toxicity indicates that further clinical testing of the combination is clearly warranted, he added.