Promising new trial results were just published for these patients:
- KRAS-wt
-Patients who initially responded to an EGFR inhibitor (e.g. cetuximab) but became resistant
"Sym004" is a next generation anti-EGFR monoclonal antibody. It is binds differently to EGFR than cetuximab. For patients who initially responded to cetuximab (i.e. patients whose tumors are intrinsically responsive to anti-EGFR therapy) went onto this trial after they became resistant to cetuximab. When dosed with sym004, 67% responded to the new drug (44% experienced tumor shrinkage and another 23% had stable disease). Side effects were similar to Cetuximab (e.g. on-target skin rash) The duration of response was modest (months) but my personal feeling is that I would gladly accept extra months from a tolerable drug that not only allowed more quality time with my kids but also allow more months of immunotherapy research to proceed...
This was a small trial (39 patients were dosed during dose expansion following dose escalation) - but the results were consistent with what you would expect scientifically so I think probably the same data will roughly be seen in the current confirmatory Phase 2 trial.
Phase Clinical Trial results (this is the current link for pre-print, if it stops working, let me know & I'll update to the finalized link):
http://cancerdiscovery.aacrjournals.org ... 2.abstract
Phase 2 confirmatory trial in progress in many locations (randomized versus chemo):
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT ... 004&rank=1
-DK