Cambridge, Mass.-based Epizyme Inc. said the phase 2 study of tazemetostat in mesothelioma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer, met its main goal.
Mesothelioma, often associated with asbestos exposure, is a cancer that develops in the soft tissue surrounding the lungs, abdomen or heart.
The trial evaluated tazemetostat in malignant mesothelioma patients with BRCA1-associated protein 1 loss-of-function who did not respond to treatment or whose cancers came back after being treated.
Under the study, 51% of patients, or 31 of 61, saw their tumors shrink or stop growing after 12 weeks of treatment with tazemetostat — a metric known as disease control.
Further, as of Jan. 16, 16 patients maintained disease control for at least 24 weeks since starting treatment with the therapy, two of whom achieved partial response, or a specified reduction in tumor size.
The drug was generally well tolerated by the patients under the study, with five subjects having their dose reduced due to side effects emerging from the treatment. Adverse events include fatigue and decreased appetite.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration previously imposed a partial clinical hold on enrollment of trials on tazemetostat after Epizyme disclosed in a safety report that a child developed a secondary T cell lymphoma as a side effect of treatment.
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.
