CALGARY, Jan. 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - Oncolytics Biotech Inc. ("Oncolytics") (TSX:ONC, NASDAQ:ONCY) announced today that it has met the initial criteria to proceed to full enrolment in its U.S. Phase II trial to evaluate the intravenous administration of REOLYSIN(R) in patients with various sarcomas that have metastasized to the lung.
According to the trial protocol, to proceed to full enrolment of 52 patients, Oncolytics had to demonstrate that at least one patient in the first 38 patients treated experienced a complete or partial response, or stable disease for greater than six months. The third patient treated in the study was demonstrated to have stable disease by RECIST criteria for more than six months as measured by CT scan. A PET scan taken at the same time showed that any residual mass was metabolically inert.
A total of 12 patients have received REOLYSIN(R) treatment to date, with five remaining on study. All 12 patients have been treated at the Cancer Therapy and Research Center, University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, Texas (CTRC at UTHSCSA).
"We are very pleased to proceed to the second stage of the REOLYSIN(R) study," said Dr. Monica Mita, Principal Investigator at CTRC at UTHSCSA. "This unique targeted compound has met our expectations so far in terms of both tolerability and efficacy endpoints and we feel it is very important to continue to offer this agent to our patients."
"While still early, these are very encouraging results," said Dr. Karl Mettinger, Chief Medical Officer of Oncolytics. "There are few treatment options for patients with bone or soft tissue cancers, and we are pleased that the trial participants appear to be benefiting from REOLYSIN(R) treatment."
Patients are expected to be enrolled at three additional sites, which include the Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York, the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
The trial (REO 014) is a Phase II, open-label, single agent study whose primary objective is to measure tumour responses and duration of response, and to describe any evidence of antitumour activity of intravenous, multiple dose REOLYSIN(R) in patients with bone and soft tissue sarcomas metastatic to the lung. REOLYSIN(R) is delivered intravenously to patients at a dose of 3x10(10) TCID(50) for five consecutive days. Patients may receive additional five-day cycles of therapy every four weeks for a maximum of eight cycles. Up to 52 patients will be enrolled in the study.
Eligible patients must have a bone or soft tissue sarcoma metastatic to the lung deemed by their physician to be unresponsive to or untreatable by standard therapies. These include patients with osteosarcoma, Ewing sarcoma family tumours, malignant fibrous histiocytoma, synovial sarcoma, fibrosarcoma and leiomyosarcoma.
About Oncolytics Biotech Inc.
Oncolytics is a Calgary-based biotechnology company focused on the development of oncolytic viruses as potential cancer therapeutics. Oncolytics' clinical program includes a variety of Phase I and Phase II human trials using REOLYSIN(R), its proprietary formulation of the human reovirus, alone and in combination with radiation or chemotherapy. For further information about Oncolytics, please visit www.oncolyticsbiotech.com
SOURCE Oncolytics Biotech Inc.
