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Clinical Trial Shows Promise for Veglin In Fighting Tumors
Veglin:
NEW ORLEANS, LA — June 25, 2004 — Veglin (VEGF–AS) was useful in blocking tumor growth in patients with lymphoma, sarcoma, Kaposi’s sarcoma, and colon and lung cancers, according to an ongoing study reported recently at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. The study was part of an early clinical phase I trial. Plans are underway to conduct a more detailed phase II clinical trial with Veglin that would include patients with mesothelioma.
Veglin inhibits VEGF or vascular endothelial growth factor, a substance that is found in very high levels in mesothelioma patients. VEGF and a related molecule, VEGF–C, allow tumors to spread by growing new blood vessels. This process is called angiogenesis. Prior laboratory studies with other VEGF inhibitors showed that they can slow mesothelioma tumor growth (Int J Cancer 2003 May 1; 104(5): 603–10; Growth Factors in Mesothelioma Cell Lines).
In the present study, 36 patients with advanced cancers that could not be treated with standard therapies received Veglin at doses ranging from 15 mg/m2 to 85 mg/m2. VEGF levels declined in 56% percent of the patients; tumor growth slowed in 11%. There were no major toxic effects, even at higher doses.
“We have seen tumor shrinkage and stabilization in diverse disease types. These are good indications for a single agent,” said Dr. Alexandra Levine, lead researcher and Chief of Hematology at the Keck School of Medicine at the USC/Norris Cancer Hospital. “In the future, we would combine it [Veglin] with other drugs” (University of Southern California Press Release, June 7, 2004).
Expected to begin this year, the phase II trial of Veglin will be open to carcinoma, leukemia, and lymphoma patients as well as to mesothelioma patients. For more information, you or your doctor may call the Mesothelioma Research Foundation of America at 1–800–909–6376, or the Clinical Investigation Support Office of the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center at 323–865–0451.
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