While both drugs produced marked reductions in tumor growth, the GTI-2501 treatment also led to disease stabilization (i.e., very little or no tumor growth). These results were obtained in tests using two different human prostate tumor types on a total of 20 mice that received either GTI-2040 or GTI-2501.

"Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers in North America with, for example, nearly 900,000 new cases in the United States over the last four years. It may be treated successfully by surgery, radiation or hormonal therapies, but if the disease progresses to an advanced stage or recurs there are very few therapeutic options available," said Dr. Jim A. Wright, president and chief scientific officer at Lorus. "Clearly, it is important to find new drugs that are effective in treating prostate cancer, particularly the advanced forms, and from this point of view the pre-clinical results obtained with GTI-2040 and GTI-2501 are encouraging."

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved an investigational new drug application to conduct clinical trials with GTI-2040. A clinical trial is now in progress and patient treatment with GTI-2040 is taking place under the direction of Dr. Richard Schilsky, Professor of Medicine and Associate Dean for Clinical Research at the University of Chicago Cancer Research Center.

Although still early in the clinical trial, human dosing to date has been well tolerated, with no apparent safety concerns.

Lorus is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the research and development of cancer therapies. Lorus' goal is to capitalize on its research, pre-clinical, clinical and regulatory expertise by developing new drug candidates that can be used, either alone or in combination, to successfully manage cancer.

Related website:

Lorus Therapeutics

[Contact: Julija Hunter]

29-Feb-2000