A deluge of pre-ASCO data hits the market

As we mentioned earlier this week, data from almost 5,000 clinical studies was released last night in preparation for next week's ASCO meeting. And some of the most interesting data won't be released until the conference. In the meantime, here's a sampling of the trial results that are making waves today. 

• Kidney cancer patients taking Novartis' RAD001 (everolimus) had progression of their disease delayed by a year, a significantly better result than in those taking placebo. Release [1]
• Amgen's brain tumor drug AMG-102 may only work on a subset of patients. The data is from a small Phase II study of the drug. On a better note, Amgen said denosumab cut the risk of bone fractures in cancer patients, outperforming Novartis' Zometa in an early stage trial. Release [2]
• A Phase III trial of Avastin for early-stage colon cancer will be available sooner than previously thought, said Genentech, because of faster data collection and more patients with the disease. Data will be available in 2008--a full year earlier than previously planned. Release [3]
• BioVex said data from a Phase II trial of OncoVEX demonstrated an impressive rate and durability of response in patients with advanced metastatic melanoma. Release [4]
• Nektar Therapeutics announced results form a Phase I study of NKTR-102. The data shows significant anti-tumor activity in patients with refractory solid tumors. Release [5]

Related Articles:
ASCO braces for massive data dump before meeting [6]
ASCO plays host to new cancer studies [7]
Cancer stocks gyrating as ASCO abstracts circulate [8]