TUSTIN, Calif., April 18 — Peregrine Pharmaceuticals Inc. reported that data will be presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting in Anaheim, California related to Tarvacin™, its lead Anti-Phospholipid Therapy agent. The data to be presented shows that 3G4, the mouse version of Tarvacin™, is active against a number of solid tumors including lung, prostate, pancreatic, fibrosarcoma and breast cancers given as a single agent or in combination with either chemotherapy or radiation therapy. In a pre-clinical lung cancer model, the combination of 3G4 plus radiation therapy inhibited tumor growth by over 95% and 3G4 alone decreased tumor growth by 62%. In pancreatic pre-clinical tumor therapy experiments, 3G4 plus the chemotherapeutic agent gemcitabine decreased primary tumor growth by 60% and essentially stopped metastasis to liver and lymph nodes.
“These pre-clinical data in a variety of tumor types are extremely valuable since our phase I clinical trial for Tarvacin™ allows inclusion of patients with any solid tumor type.” said Steven King, president and CEO of Peregrine Pharmaceuticals. “In particular, pre-clinical results investigating different combinations of Tarvacin™ with standard cancer therapies should prove especially helpful in guiding the clinical program.” Peregrine expects to begin patient enrollment in the Tarvacin(TM) phase I clinical trial within the next 30 days.”