CALGARY, Nov. 10, 2011 /PRNewswire/ - Oncolytics Biotech Inc. (TSX:ONC) (NASDAQ:ONCY) (“Oncolytics” or the “Company”) today announced its financial results and operational highlights for the quarter ended September 30, 2011.
“During the quarter we achieved significant increases in the number of enrolling countries in the first stage of our Phase III head and neck cancer study,” said Dr. Brad Thompson, President and CEO of Oncolytics. “We currently have approval to conduct the trial in 12 countries in North America and Europe and are focusing on completing enrolment for this stage.”
Selected Highlights
Since July 1, 2011, the Company has made a number of significant announcements:
Clinical Trial Results
- The presentation of interim preliminary results from a Phase 2 clinical trial using intravenous administration of REOLYSIN® in combination with paclitaxel and carboplatin in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with Kras or EGFR-activated tumours at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer World Conference on Lung Cancer. As of the presentation date, response evaluation in 21 patients showed six partial responses (PR) (28.6%), 13 stable disease (SD) (61.9%) and two progressive disease (PD) (9.5%), translating into a clinical benefit rate (complete response (CR) + PR + SD) of 90.5% and a response rate (CR + PR) of 28.6%;
Preclinical Program
- The posting of a study in the online version of Molecular Therapy, a publication of The American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy, investigating the timing of chemotherapy delivery that optimizes the efficacy of systemic REOLYSIN. The paper, authored by Kottke et al., was entitled “Precise Scheduling of Chemotherapy Primes VEGF-producing Tumors for Successful Systemic Oncolytic Virotherapy.” It describes when best to administer taxanes with reovirus to optimize viral delivery to the tumor mass. The researchers demonstrated that this drug combination yielded superior results to either treatment alone. They were able to reproducibly cure nearly half of the treated animals by employing this optimized schedule of paclitaxel/REOLYSIN;
Corporate