Scandion Oncologys mål är att eliminera cancers förmåga att utveckla resistens mot behandling. Läkemedelsresistens orsakar i dagsläget hälften av alla cancerrelaterade dödsfall hos patienter som genomgår läkemedelsbehandling. Bolagets primära läkemedelskandidat mot cancerläkemedelsresistens, SCO-101, utvecklas som en kombinationsterapi för patienter med metastaserad och kemoterapiresistent kolorektalcancer.

Tidigare i år fick Scandion Oncology ett kvitto på att deras forskning håller hög klass då bolaget tilldelades den högsta möjliga summan från InnoBoster, Innovation Fund Denmark – 5 miljoner DKK. Pengarna är öronmärkta för en klinisk fas II-studie av SC0-101 i kombination med taxaner i metastaserande pankreascancer. Läs mer här.

Bolaget skulle egentligen ha presenterat både positiva prekliniska data och den tänkta studiedesignen för den kommande fas II-studien med SCO-101 i patienter med kemoresistent metastaserande kolorektalcancer vid American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) konferensen i San Diego 24–29 april. Konferensen ställdes dock in på grund av den pågående COVID-19-pandemin.

Läs mer om de planerade presentationerna här.

Under veckan delgav även bolaget marknaden nya resultat från prekliniska studier med SCO-101 genom ett pressmeddelande. Dessa data publicerades i den internationella peer-review tidskriften European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

SCO-101 ger synergieffekter med docetaxel

Scandion Oncologys data visar att bolagets kandidat SCO-101 har betydande synergier i kombination med det vanligt använda cancerläkemedlet docetaxel. Docetaxel tillhör den grupp av kemoterapeutiska substanser som heter taxaner, vilka används för behandling av flera cancertyper, inklusive bröstcancer, pankreascancer, prostatacancer och äggstockscancer.

Baserat på modellering av prekliniska data med docetaxelresistenta cancerceller, visade sig kombinationen docetaxel + SCO-101 öka styrkan hos docetaxel med cirka 60 procent jämfört med när enbart docetaxel användes. Det betyder att vid specifika koncentrationer av SCO-101, behövdes lägre doser av docetaxel för att uppnå samma effekt på cellviabiliteten.

BioStock har pratat med Scandion Oncologys CSO Jan Stenvang för att få en mer ingående beskrivning av denna milstolpe.

Jan Stenvang, CSO Scandion Oncology

Jan Stenvang, Scandion Oncology has, for the first time, been able to show synergy effects from combining SCO-101 with taxane chemotherapy. The potency increased approximately 60 per cent compared to docetaxel alone in docetaxel-resistant cancer cells. Can you guide us through the significance of this finding?

– The published study provides Proof-of-Concept for SCO-101 in combination with docetaxel. The results show that SCO-101 not only works in combination with taxanes in taxane resistant cancer cells, but also that the combination is synergistic, which means that the combined effect is larger than the sum of each of the two drugs.

– The obtained data support our future clinical studies, where patients with inoperable pancreatic cancer will be exposed to taxane treatment alone versus taxane treatment in combination with SCO-101. The effect of adding SCO-101 to taxanes will be evaluated by determinations of time to disease progression and time to death after treatment. Scandion Oncology expects to initiate this clinical study in Q3, 2020.

In your press release, you mention that the results have implications for future clinical studies. Would you care to expand on this?

– From the mathematical modelling and calculations of the combined effects of docetaxel and SCO-101, we can now start to perform dose relationship calculations, and these data will be used as an initial guide to establish the SCO-101 doses to be applied in the pancreatic cancer study.

How well do taxane treatments work today, and how often are they used in cancer patients?

– Taxanes are considered among the most effective types of chemotherapy and they are used in a long list of cancer types. Since SCO-101 is not cancer type-specific but rather cancer drug-specific, we expect that the data obtained from the pancreatic cancer study can directly be used in other cancer forms such as breast cancer, ovarian cancer and prostate cancer.

– As with all other types of chemotherapy, taxane treated patients with metastatic disease will almost inevitably develop resistance to the drug. To make it even worse, taxane resistance is often accompanied by so-called cross-resistance which means that the cancer cells are not only taxane resistant but now also resistant to other types of chemotherapy.

Next, you will submit a study protocol to the Danish Medicines Agency (DMA) for a Phase II study that evaluates a combination treatment of taxanes with SCO-101 in patients with pancreatic cancer. When do you expect a response from the agency, and how likely is it that it will be positive?

– The plan is to submit the application to DMA in Q2, 2020.  Based on the very positive feedback we got from DMA when applying for the ongoing Phase II study in colorectal cancer, we expect a positive response.

Given the outcome of the preclinical model study, what results do you expect from the upcoming clinical trial?

– We were very pleased with the clear results from the analyses of the combined effects of SCO-101 and docetaxel. These data strongly support in vivo findings (human cancer cells growing in immunodeficient animals) and we expect that these experimental data will translate into the human setting with cancer patients.

Innehållet i Biostocks nyheter och analyser är oberoende men Biostocks verksamhet är i viss mån finansierad av bolag i branschen. Detta inlägg avser ett bolag som BioStock erhållit finansiering från.