OncoGel™ for oesophageal and primary brain cancer
Product information: Patients with oesophageal and recurrent brain cancers have very few treatment options and life-expectancy can be less than two years from first diagnosis.
It is hoped that OncoGel, used in combination with commonly used cancer treatments such as surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, will help extend life expectancy of patients with oesophageal cancer and brain cancer. OncoGel also has the potential to be used in other cancers in the future.
OncoGel is designed to be injected directly into the tumour for oesophageal tumours and placed directly into the tumour resection cavity following surgery in brain cancer patients. OncoGel continuously releases paclitaxel for up to six weeks to provide orders of magnitude higher concentration of the drug in the tumour than in the blood. A phase 2a study of OncoGel in patients with late stage oesophageal cancer showed that that 70% of patients had a reduction in tumour volume when OncoGel was used in combination with radiotherapy. Encouragingly, biopsy samples did not contain tumour cells in almost 40% of patients.
Technology: Sustained-release formulation of paclitaxel, a well established chemotherapy agent for local injection
Mechanisms of action: Provides high concentrations of paclitaxel at the tumour site while minimising exposure to other organs
Incidence: 15,000 new cases of oesophageal cancer are reported in the US each year, with 13,000 patients dying of the disease annually* 22,000 new cases of primary brain cancer are reported in the US each year, with 13,000 dying of the disease annually*
Market opportunity: More than US$250 million for the treatment of oesophageal and brain cancers in the US
*American Cancer Society publication Cancer Facts & Figures 2008, the National Cancer Institute & the Central Brain Tumour Registry
For further information see the
OncoGel fact sheet