BOTHELL – A Sonus Pharmaceuticals chemotherapy drug showed encouraging results in recent tests on patients with advanced breast cancer.
The test data on Tocosol paclitaxel were presented Thursday at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium in Texas.
Among 47 women with metastatic breast cancer, Tocosol stopped tumor growth in one patient and slowed it in 24 others. The rest of the women did not show any response to the drug, Sonus reported.
That response rate, according to an independent radiologist who participated in the tests, is at the upper end of response rates to similar drugs that have taxane as its active ingredient.
“We think if you look at this response rate, it’s favorable,” Sonus spokeswoman Pamela Dull said. She added that a pivotal late-stage study of Tocosol on breast cancer patients is under way to confirm the earlier results.
Tocosol paclitaxel contains the same active ingredient in Taxol, the world’s biggest-selling drug to fight cancer.
But Sonus’ delivery system uses vitamin E oil mixed with other chemicals that make oil-soluble drugs easier to dissolve and therefore potentially more effective. Tests show it can be delivered in a 15-minute dose, compared with the average three-hour infusion required with Taxol.
Also, with 197 patients treated to date with Tocosol against certain types of breast, lung, bladder and ovarian cancer, the treatment has shown no unusual occurrence of side effects, according to Sonus.
Earlier this fall, Sonus announced that German drug maker Schering AG had agreed to help develop and market Tocosol in a partnership deal worth millions of dollars to the Bothell biotechnology firm.
Sonus’ stock lost 16 cents on Thursday to close at $4.40 a share, but was up by 17 cents in after-hours trading .
Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.
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