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An American cancer therapeutics company has joined forces with South Korean healthcare firm Green Cross to begin testing a drug’s effectiveness in fighting liver cancer.
The joint trial by Green Cross and US-based Jennerex, conducted at clinical sites in the US, South Korea and Canada, is looking into the effects of poxvirus JX-594 on hard-to-manage primary liver cancer and its ability to prevent tumour progression.
Initial results from the randomised trial, involving 30 patients receiving a single dose, found no significant toxicities.
President and chief executive officer of Jennerex, Dr David Kirn, said: “We’re very excited to have this trial open and enrolling with our lead product, JX-594, which has the potential to revolutionise the treatment of more than 10,000 patients each year who develop liver cancer in the US alone.
“The numbers of patients with liver cancer in the EU, Japan and Asia are even higher. These desperate patients represent a huge unmet medical need since few effective therapies are available for them.”
The study also aims to test the safety and tolerability of JX-594 administered at the two-dose level, as well as tumour response and progression-free survival rates.
Copyright Press Association 2009
