DelMar's Cancer Drug Promising For Treating Chemo-Resistant Lung Cancer

By C. Rajan, contributing writer

DelMar Pharmaceuticals has announced promising new clinical data from its lead cancer drug, VAL-083, demonstrating the effectiveness of this compound in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Common treatment options for NSCLC are tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI), such as gefitinib, or platinum-based chemotherapy drugs like cisplatin. However, there is growing resistance to these drugs, and TKI resistant cancer has emerged as a significant unmet medical need. The platinum-based therapies also have poor long-term prognosis.

DelMar's lead compound, VAL-083 (dianhydrogalactitol) is a first-in-class small-molecule alkylating agent which has a novel cytotoxic mechanism different from other alkylating agents currently being used. The molecular structure of VAL-083 is also very different from other approved small molecule chemotherapeutics, and this is most likely why VAL-083 is able to work around the TKI resistance problem.

In this study, VAL-083 was compared with platinum-based chemotherapy (cisplatin), and found to be superior in several aspects. The results showed that VAL-083 performed better than cisplatin in both TKI-sensitive and resistant tumor models, has synergistic effect in combination with cisplatin, and has strong potential for fighting against TKI-resistant NSCLC.

"The data presented today showed that VAL-083 is superior to cisplatin in both tumor models that are sensitive and resistant to tyrosine kinase inhibitors and has synergistic effect in combination with cisplatin," said Jeffrey Bacha, president and CEO of DelMar Pharmaceuticals. "This data suggests important clinical and market potential of VAL-083 in non-small cell lung cancer."

In earlier clinical trials, VAL-083 has shown significant potential to fight three different chemotherapy resistant cancers, including NSCLC. It has already been approved in China as a cancer chemotherapeutic for the treatment of leukemia and lung cancer.

"Rates of lung cancer have been rising steeply over the past decade and are a significant public health problem in China," explained Bacha. "China has one-third of the global deaths from lung cancer, and non-small cell lung cancer accounts for more than 85 percent of all lung cancer cases, of which almost half are diagnosed at an advanced stage of the disease."

VAL-083 has also demonstrated its ability to traverse the blood-brain barrier and is currently being evaluated in the U.S. in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial to treat glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most common and aggressive form of brain cancer. It has been granted orphan drug status for the treatment of gliomas in the United States and in Europe.