Chemokine Achieves Milestone with Cancer Drug

Chemokine Therapeutics has started patient dosing in a Phase Ib/II trial using CTCE-9908, the company’s lead anti-cancer product. This trial represents the first investigation of CTCE-9908’s safety and ability to reduce the spread of cancer in humans after several doses. A previously completed Phase I trial demonstrated CTCE-9908 to be safe and well tolerated by study subjects after a single dose. The new trial will involve testing the drug in as many as 30 patients with late-stage cancers to evaluate safety and preliminary efficacy. The trial will study CTCE-9908 in patients with some of the most common cancers such as breast, lung, prostate, and ovarian.

In preclinical studies, CTCE-9908 has been shown to reduce cancer metastases by 50-70% and demonstrated early evidence of potential anti-angiogenic properties. CTCE-9908 is designed to block the receptors to which the chemokine SDF-1 binds. SDF-1 is believed to activate the receptor CXCR4, which has been implicated in cancer growth and metastasis.