LEXINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Synta Pharmaceuticals Corp., (NASDAQ: SNTA), a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing small molecule drugs to treat severe medical conditions, today announced the first patient has been treated in its Phase 1/2 clinical study for its novel oxidative stress inducer, elesclomol, in combination with docetaxel in metastatic, hormone refractory prostate cancer. Elesclomol is a first-in-class investigational drug, believed to work by exploiting a fundamental vulnerability of many cancer cells – their elevated level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and diminished anti-oxidant capacity. By further elevating ROS levels in cancer cells, elesclomol increases oxidative stress, triggering programmed cell death (apoptosis) while leaving normal cells relatively unaffected. Synta is currently conducting a global, pivotal Phase 3 trial of elesclomol in metastatic melanoma. Elesclomol is not approved for marketing by any regulatory body in any country.
