Trovagene has announced the activation of the second clinical trial site for its Phase 1b/2 multicenter trial of PCM-075 in patients with AML, with Virginia Piper Cancer Institute and Principal Investigator, Dr. Michaela Tsai.
The primary objectives of this Phase 1b/2 trial in AML are to evaluate the safety of PCM-075 in combination with either low-dose cytarabine or decitabine in subjects and to identify the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) in Phase 1b to administer to further evaluate the safety and preliminary efficacy in Phase 2. This trial is being led by Hematologist Jorge Eduardo Cortes, M.D., Deputy Department Chair, Department of Leukemia, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
"PCM-075 is the first highly PLK1-selective competitive inhibitor administered orally to enter clinical trials with potential activity in both hematologic and solid tumor cancers," said Bill Welch, Chief Executive Officer of Trovagene. "We are excited to have Virginia Piper Cancer Institute as one of our key trial sites and ready to screen and enroll subjects in our PCM-075 AML trial."
PCM-075 is a highly-selective adenosine triphosphate (ATP) competitive inhibitor of the serine/threonine polo-like-kinase 1 (PLK 1) enzyme, which is over-expressed in multiple hematologic and solid tumor cancers. Studies have shown that inhibition of polo-like-kinases can lead to tumor cell death, including a Phase 2 study in Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) where response rates up to 31% were observed when used in conjunction with a standard therapy for AML (low-dose cytarabine-LDAC) versus treatment with LDAC alone with a 13.3% response rate. A Phase 1 open-label, dose escalation safety study of PCM-075 has been completed in patients with advanced metastatic solid tumor cancers, and published in Investigational New Drugs. Trovagene is initiating a Phase 1b/2 clinical trial with PCM-075 in AML that was accepted by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and is now publicly viewable on www.clinicaltrials.gov.
PCM-075 only targets PLK1 isoform (not PLK2 or PLK3), is oral, has a 24-hour drug half-life with reversible on-target hematologic toxicities. Trovagene believes that targeting only PLK1 with reversible on-target activity and an improved dose/scheduling protocol can significantly improve on the long-term outcome observed in previous studies with a PLK inhibitor in AML.
PCM-075 has demonstrated synergy in preclinical studies with over 10 chemotherapeutic and target agents used in hematologic and solid tumor cancers, including FLT3 and HDAC inhibitors, taxanes, and cytotoxins. Trovagene believes the combination of its targeted PLK-1 inhibitor, PCM-075, with other compounds has the potential for improved clinical efficacy in Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer (CRPC), Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL), Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) and Adrenocortical Carcinoma (ACC).
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a hematologic malignancy in which myeloid lineage cells of the bone marrow cease to differentiate appropriately, resulting in a marked increase in the number of circulating immature blast cells. As a consequence, the counts of mature red blood cells, platelets, and normal white blood cells decline, causing fatigue, shortness of breath, bleeding, and increased susceptibility to infection. The Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) program estimates the annual incidence rate of AML in the United States (US) to be approximately 21,000 cases in 2017. Rates of new AML cases have been rising an average of 3.1% each year over the last 10 years. The median age of AML diagnosis is 68 years of age, and approximately 45% of new diagnoses are among patients age 70 years or older.