Early Trial Shows Drug Can Curb Ewing's Sarcoma Growth
24 December 2009 - An early study of the drug figitumumab has found that in some patients it can curb the growth of Ewing’s sarcoma. The study was led by Dr Johann de Bono and funded by Pfizer, who developed the drug. The results, published online in The Lancet Oncology today, led to the drug’s progression to a Phase II trial in patients with Ewing’s sarcoma, which has recently finished recruiting.
Previous studies have shown that a molecule called insulin-like growth-factor-1 receptor (IGF-1R) is involved in the growth and spread of Ewing’s sarcoma and other sarcoma subtypes. Figitumumab is an antibody that blocks IGF-1R and so scientists investigated whether this drug could be used to treat Ewing’s sarcoma and other sarcomas.
Between January 2006 and August 2008, Figitumumab was given to 29 patients with advanced sarcoma, including 16 patients with Ewing’s sarcoma. Side effects reported were mostly mild to moderate.
Dr de Bono says: “Although this trial was designed just to measure safety, for most patients we were also able to measure the drug’s effect on their tumours. We found cancer shrank or stabilised for patients with several sarcoma subtypes, including about half of the patients with Ewing’s sarcoma.”
The study was a collaboration between the ICR and The Royal Marsden in the UK and the Mayo Clinic, the University of Michigan Cancer Centre and Pfizer Global Research and Development in the US.
