Odonate Therapeutics Inc.'s oral chemotherapy drug tesetaxel was effective in 45% of patients with a type of advanced breast cancer that had spread to other areas of the body, according to data presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
The company was studying the medicine in 38 patients with a form of breast cancer that is characterized by the lack of HER2 — a protein on the surface of breast cells that can be overproduced in cancer — but a presence of hormone receptors.
The drug helped keep the disease from worsening for an average of 5.4 months in the patients who responded to treatment, a measure known as progression-free survival. Median duration of response, a measure of the time between the initial response to therapy and subsequent disease progression or relapse, was 10.9 months.
Neutropenia, or a reduced level of a white blood cell called neutrophils, was the most common severe adverse event in the phase 2 trial, known as TOB203.
"Tesetaxel's significant single-agent activity, once-every-three-week oral dosing and low rates of neuropathy and hair loss could make this investigational agent a unique treatment option for patients, if approved," Andrew Seidman, a professor at the Weill Cornell Medical College, said in a statement.
The company is also studying the medicine in an ongoing study known as Contessa to determine whether it is better than another chemotherapy drug, capecitabine, in breast cancer.
The 2018 American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting is expected to bring together more than 32,000 professionals from all over the world, with more than 2,500 study abstracts to be presented on-site and an additional 3,350 abstracts to be published online.
