Strong early indicators for the PTX-100 treatment give Prescient multiple pathways to market, as it builds out an expanded clinical study in 2022.
Leading ASX oncology company Prescient Therapeutics (ASX:PTX) took another step forward in its multi-channel development pathway this morning, with confirmation of expanded patient recruitment for a key clinical trial.
The decision to expand the trial followed excellent safety data and promising preliminary evidence of clinical efficiency for one of the company’s lead drug candidates, PTX-100, in the treatment of patients with T-cell lymphomas.
The expansion cohort is “an open-label, non-randomised study that will enrol eight to 12 patients with relapsed and refractory T-cell lymphoma”, Prescient said.
It will be led by world-renowned hematologist, Professor H. Miles Prince at Epworth Hospital in Melbourne.
Strong indicators
The expansion of the trial was prompted by clinical investigators, who were encouraged by the early responses in existing patients participating in the trial.
For the expansion, the clinical focus will be on enrolling patients with peripheral T-cell lymphomas (PTCL).
“PTCL is a blood cancer with substantial unmet need for new therapies and represents an exciting clinical and commercial opportunity for PTX-100,” Prescient said.
Prescient plans to include several trial patients with cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) in the cohort as well, which will help to bolster insights on the broader drug response across all T-cell lymphomas.
To date, one PTCL patient from the Phase 1b escalation cohort has already shown improved response indicators to the PTX-100 treatment, having already undergone 37 cycles of cancer therapy.
“This patient had particularly aggressive disease that had failed five prior therapies, none of which were able to control the disease for more than a few months before the disease progressed further,” Prescient said.
“When treated with PTX-100, this patient experienced a partial response (reduction in cancer burden), and this response has endured for 24 months so far.”
That compares to an expected response time of four months or less, based on the current industry standard of care.
Another patient also had a partial response to the PTX-100 study, after failing three prior treatments with an aggressive form of CTCL.
“In both cases, such patients with refractory T-cell lymphomas on standard treatments would typically be expected to have disease progression within 4 months,” Prescient said.
“This highlights the encouraging nature of the responses to PTX-100.”
PTX-100 attributes
PTX-100 is a first-in-class targeted therapy that blocks an important cancer growth enzyme called GGT-1.
It was co-invented by Prescient’s Scientific Founder, Professor Said Sebti, and is exclusively licensed by Prescient from Yale University.
Prescient CEO Steven Yatomi-Clarke said the strong early indicators for PTX-100 as a T-cell lymphoma treatment offers significant market potential.
For starters, its excellent safety profile also gives it a possible use-case as a treatment for patients who are unable to tolerate higher toxicities.
“Secondly, PTX-100’s low toxicity profile and wide therapeutic window opens up possibilities to combine PTX-100 with various other cancer therapies, depending on the cancer and line of treatment,” Yatomi-Clarke said.
It adds up to an exciting year ahead for the company as additional testing gets underway and Prescient works towards its proprietary solution for what is currently an unmet clinical need.
“We look forward to continuing to support the patients who remain on the therapy and supporting the dedicated and talented researchers working on the expansion cohort study as we pursue the quickest route to market for PTX-100,” Mr Yatomi-Clarke said.
This article was developed in collaboration with Prescient Therapeutics, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
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