BERKELEY HEIGHTS, N.J., Aug. 30, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq:CYCC) (Nasdaq:CYCCP) (Cyclacel or the Company), today announced that the first patient has been dosed in an investigator-initiated, translational, Phase 2 clinical study at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The objective of the study is to learn if oral sapacitabine capsules given in combination with two standard injectable drugs, cyclophosphamide and rituximab, or the “SCR regimen”, can help control chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL) in up to 40 relapsed patients with leukemia cells containing the 11q22-23 chromosome deletion. Deletion at chromosome 11q22-23 is associated with deletion of the Ataxia Telangiectasia Mutated (ATM) gene, an important element of the homologous recombination DNA repair (HRR) pathway. Previous findings show that cells with HRR pathway defects are particularly sensitive to sapacitabine. Sapacitabine may therefore be of particular benefit to patients with ATM-defective blood cancers.
