CNTO 328 Shows Promise For Ovarian Cancer In Small Clinical Trial, Say U.K. Scientists.

British scientists have developed and clinically tested a drug that could prolong the lives of ovarian cancer patients. A clinical trial of the drug, codenamed CNTO328, has been carried out at the Centre for Experimental Cancer Medicine, which is part of Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry. … The drug is an antibody which works by targeting a molecule called Interleukin 6, which is made by cancer cells and is vital to help them multiply, spread and develop their own blood supply. … “At the end of the trial, eight of the women were either stable or getting better. Their cancer had stopped growing. That doesn’t sound great, but in ovarian cancer that’s pretty good because [without the drug] the disease would have progressed in all of them,” said McNeish.

British scientists have developed and clinically tested a drug that could prolong the lives of ovarian cancer patients.  A clinical trial of the drug, codenamed CNTO328, has been carried out at the Centre for Experimental Cancer Medicine, which is part of Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Eight of the 18 women enrolled in the trial experienced tumor stabilization or shrinkage.  The investigators noted that the percentage of women who received clinical benefit from CNTO328 is an unusually high proportion for an experimental cancer drug study. Typically only between 5%  and 20% of participants secure any benefit from taking untried treatments, according to the investigators.

Iain McNeish, MA, Ph.D., MRCP, Professor of Gynecological Oncology, Honorary Consultant in Medical Oncology, Deputy Director Centre for Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre for Molecular Oncology & Imaging, Barts and the London School of Medicine & Denistry, London, United Kingdom

Professor Iain McNeish, a professor of gynaecological oncology at Barts hospital in London and chief investigator of the trial, said: “We have taken the drug from the laboratory into patients and the results are promising.  The hope with this group of patients was to slow down the progress of their ovarian cancer, improve the quality of their life and possibly make them live longer. We have been quite successful in doing that. If this becomes a treatment, this is a whole new approach to treating ovarian cancer.”

The drug is an antibody which works by targeting a molecule called Interleukin 6, which is made by cancer cells and is vital to help them multiply, spread and develop their own blood supply.  Interleukin 6 is found in many cancers but plays a key role in ovarian cancer’s movement into the abdomen. The antibody binds to the Interleukin 6, blocks its progress by ensuring that it cannot bind itself to the cancer cells to assist their growth and thus renders it harmless.

McNeish hopes that, if further trials confirm the drug’s potential, it could prove as effective in tackling ovarian cancer as Herceptin has been in breast cancer. CNTO328 works in a similar way to Herceptin, which has revolutionized breast cancer treatment in recent years. “The dream scenario is that a combination of the existing chemotherapy drugs and this type of antibody will be a big breakthrough and open up a new avenue for the treatment of ovarian cancer”, said McNeish.

The new drug is the result of a collaboration between Professor Fran Balkwill, an expert in cancer and inflammation at the Institute of Cancer, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Denistry, and a Dutch biotech company called Centocor, which is now owned by Johnson & Johnson.

Eighteen women with the disease from north-east London and Essex joined the trial which began in late 2007.  All 18 were expected to live for less than a year when they began receiving the drug because their cancer had returned after undergoing several courses of chemotherapy.  Ten women died but the health of eight women improved. Seven of those eight women are still alive.  “At the end of the trial, eight of the women were either stable or getting better. Their cancer had stopped growing. That doesn’t sound great, but in ovarian cancer that’s pretty good because [without the drug] the disease would have progressed in all of them,” said McNeish.

Annwen Jones, chief executive of the UK charity Target Ovarian Cancer, said there were too few drugs available to treat ovarian cancer because of a lack of research. “This early stage trial certainly shows promise, because it appears that the growth of tumors has been slowed down in a good proportion of the patients who took part in the study,” said Jones. “Women being treated for ovarian cancer could be forgiven for despair, particularly when they grow resistant to chemotherapy and there are no drugs that can get them over this hurdle. Research projects like this are vital if we are to develop desperately needed new treatments,” she said.

Primary Sources:

• New drug ‘could prolong life of ovarian cancer sufferers’- A drug that could prolong the lives of women with ovarian cancer is being tested by scientists, Health News, Telegraph.co.uk., April 7, 2009.

• Ovarian cancer breakthrough – Drug could be available within five years – First new treatment in a decade is by British team, by Denis Campbell, Health Correspondent, Health section, The Hindu, April 7, 2009.

Additional Resources:

• A Phase 1/2, Multiple-Dose, Dose-Escalation Study to Assess the Safety, Efficacy, and Pharmacokinetics of Intravenous CNTO 328, an Anti-Interleukin 6 (IL-6) Monoclonal Antibody, in Subjects With Solid Tumors, Clinical Trial Protocol (NCT00841191), National Institute of Health, http://www.ClinicalTrials.gov.

• CNTO328 Developer, Centocor Ortho Biotech Inc.