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A locally discovered cancer drug tried out on more than 70 patients with ovarian cancer - including New Zealand women - has performed poorly, drug developer Antisoma says.
Glyn Edwards, chief executive of the British drug developer, said: "Our ovarian cancer trial has not produced positive results."
The drug, then known as DMXAA, was discovered in Auckland by Professor Bruce Baguley and Professor William Denny more than 10 years ago and disrupts the blood supply to tumours. The New Zealanders' compound was licensed to Antisoma in 2001, and is now known as ASA404.
First-stage clinical trials in New Zealand and Britain confirmed it reduced blood flow to tumours.
The ovarian cancer study involved half of the patients receiving standard chemotherapy, while the other half received the same treatment plus ASA404. The idea was to attack the cancer on two fronts, directly using chemotherapy and indirectly by cutting off the blood supply to the tumour.
But when 37 patients were given ASA404 plus chemotherapy and a control group of 38 was given chemotherapy "there was no advantage in median time to tumour progression".
"Based on these data, development in ovarian cancer will not be a priority," said Mr Edwards, whose company has been testing ASA404 in several cancer types.
It found a five-month increase in median survival when the drug was added to chemotherapy in non-small-cell lung cancer, and licensed ASA404 to multinational drug company Novartis in April.
Novartis plans to start enrolling patients into a phase III trial in non-small cell lung cancer early next year and to explore the potential benefits of the compound in various other solid tumours.
- NZPA
