Genentech's Immune Therapy Cancer Drug Shows Promise in Early Study

An experimental drug that spurs the immune system to fight cancer appeared to be safe and demonstrated anti-tumor activity against a variety of cancers in a small early stage study, researchers said on Tuesday. The drug, called MPDL3280A, was discovered and is being developed by Roche's Genentech unit. The Phase 1 trial of the drug in 30 patients with advanced cancer was designed as a dose escalation study to test for toxicity at higher doses. But researchers were also pleased to find early signs of effectiveness of the drug. "We saw clear evidence of anti-tumor activity in a broad range of diagnoses, including lung cancer, kidney cancer, colon cancer and gastric cancer," said Dr. Michael Gordon, who presented the data on Tuesday at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting in Washington, D.C.