Promising result for mesothelioma drug in first human trial
AAP General News (Australia)
September 10, 2004
AAP General News (Australia)
09-10-2004
Fed: Promising result for mesothelioma drug in first human trial
By Kylie Walker, National Medical Correspondent
SYDNEY, Sept 10 AAP - The first people to test a new mesothelioma treatment
drug were
so impressed with the results they asked to keep taking the medication after the
trial
had ended.
Thirteen people with advanced solid tumours were given the drug, derived from
a noxious
weed known as Devil's Apple, for just one week during the trial in Perth.
Tumours started to shrink in a number of trial participants, all of whom had
been told
their cancer was terminal.
"The trial didn't actually set out to find out how well the product worked,
it was
just trying to find the right dose to use," said Greg Barrington, a spokesman
for Solbec,
the Perth-based company that makes the drug.
"Right near the beginning of the trial, where the doses were low, we got some positive results.
"It was the last thing we expected but the first thing we wanted, obviously."
Many of the patients elected to continue taking the drug, known as SBP002,
beyond the
end of the trial, Mr Barrington said.
"To get involved in a trial like that you have cancer that's not responded to
anything
else, and the doctors have said `perhaps you should enjoy your last few
months'," he said.
"So if they get a response as these people have, then clearly they say `can
we have
more of that', so they've carried on."
A phase two trial of SBP002, in which the drug will be tested on about 40
people, is
expected to begin next year in either Australia or the United States.
"Obviously it's early days to know what's going to happen to people taking it longer-term,"
Mr Barrington said.
"But we've had very encouraging results so the scientists are pretty excited."
US scientists affiliated with Solbec were also testing SBP002 on a variety of
human
cancer cells in the laboratory, to determine which cancers responded best to the
drug.
The asbestos disease mesothelioma and skin cancer melanoma were thought to be
the main
targets, but the drug may also have an effect on colon, renal and lung cancers.
