UAB tests drug that halts brain cancer for months

A potent drug made from cottonseeds stopped the most lethal form of brain cancer for months in a large number of 56 patients participating in a clinical trial, University of Alabama at Birmingham officials reported Wednesday.

The experimental drug, labeled AT-101, was used to treat recurrent glioblastoma multiforme, which accounts for as much as 20 percent of all brain cancer.

AT-101 is derived from cottonseeds, is given orally and must be carefully dosed and monitored by doctors. It is manufactured by Ascenta Therapeutics, based in Malvern, Pa., and is being looked at as a treatment for other types of cancers, including prostate and lung.

Dr. John Fiveash of UAB's Department of Radiation Oncology, the lead investigator on the latest study, is expected to present the preliminary results of the research Saturday at the American Society for Clinical Oncology's annual meeting in Orlando.

The results of the study are not conclusive. It was a Phase 2 clinical trial. Typically, a larger Phase 3 trial is necessary before a drug is approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

In a prepared release, Fiveash said the Phase 2 trial involved 56 patients, and AT-101 halted the cancer's progression in many of them.

"After getting this drug, some of these patients went many months without any new growth in their tumors," Fiveash said in the release. "We are able to do that with a well-tolerated oral medication, and that is a major benefit."

In addition to the patients whose cancer stopped growing, Fiveash said, one patient in the study showed "dramatic improvement." Exact numbers of patients whose cancer stopped or showed improvement were not released.

Before participating in the trial, the patients had undergone other treatments, including surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. Nonetheless, their brain cancers had begun to grow again.

The patients were given AT-101 daily for three out of four weeks.

Fiveash said the drug would likely work better when combined with radiation and chemotherapy. Also, researchers must determine which patients are most likely to benefit from AT-101.

The AT-101 trial is a partnership that includes Fiveash, the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, The Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Emory University in Atlanta, Moffit Cancer Center in Tampa, the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., and the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Therapeutics Evaluation Program.

E-mail: dparks@bhamnews.com