[PII results for TNFerade in esophageal cancer]
>>GAITHERSBURG, Md., Jan 27, 2006 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- GenVec, Inc. (Nasdaq: GNVC)
announced today that Dr. Neil Senzer, Medical Director of the Mary Crowley
Research Center, located in Dallas, Texas, has presented long-term follow-up
data on the Phase II study of GenVec's investigational oncology drug, TNFerade,
at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's Gastroenterological Cancer
Symposium, currently in session in San Francisco. In oral and poster
presentations, Dr. Senzer discussed results from a regimen in which 24 patients
with locally advanced, resectable esophageal cancer were treated prior to
surgery with chemotherapy, radiation, and TNFerade injections to the tumor in
doses ranging from 4x10e8 p/u to 4x10e11 p/u.
Esophageal cancer is a difficult to treat disease, and only modest progress has
been made in patient survival post-diagnosis during the past decade. After one
year, 88% of the Phase II study patients were alive, which compares favorably
with the average one-year survival of 52% reported in six comparable recent
studies. Seven of the surviving patients have been followed out past 24 months.
The two-year survival percentage for all dosage levels of TNFerade combined is
currently 73%, with follow-up continuing. The average two-year survival
percentage reported in five comparable recent studies was 33%. The median
survival point for all patients in GenVec's study has not yet been reached, with
follow-up ranging from 16 to 34 months.
"TNFerade has been tested in a wide variety of cancers and continues to show
promising indications of activity even in some of the more difficult to treat
solid tumors such as esophageal and pancreatic cancer," said Thomas A. Davis,
M.D., GenVec's Chief Medical Officer.
GenVec is currently conducting a multi-center Phase II trial with TNFerade in
locally advanced pancreatic cancer (the PACT Study), a Phase II trial in rectal
cancer in collaboration with the National Cancer Institute, and a Phase II trial
in metastatic melanoma.<<
Cheers, Tuck |
