Genta says Genasense plus radiation, chemotherapy may reduce tumor size

By Elaine Rigoli

Tampa, Fla., April 5 - Genta, Inc. announced that several scientific abstracts related to Genasense (oblimersen sodium) Injection, the company's lead anticancer compound, were featured at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research held in Washington, D.C., this week.

According to a company news release, the abstracts included the following:

• In the first study, investigators demonstrated the ability of Genasense to sensitize radiation-resistant prostate tumors. Genasense plus radiation reduced tumor volume more than three-fold compared with either radiation or Genasense used alone, or with a control antisense molecule plus radiation. Using a fluorescently labeled drug, the use of radiation also appeared to significantly increase the uptake of Genasense within tumor cells.

• The second preclinical study employed Genasense to down-regulate Bcl-2, along with a method to reduce glutathione as another possible means of increasing the effectiveness of anticancer therapy. With combined depletion of Bcl-2 and glutathione, tumor size was reduced to less than 1% compared with controls in a model of metastatic melanoma tested using chemotherapy with or without radiation.

• In the final study, investigators evaluated the effects of Genasense on white blood-cell number and function. Blood samples were collected from 12 patients who had been treated with Genasense for seven days. Genasense appeared to reduce the number of certain lymphocyte subsets, as well as possibly increasing the activation of so-called "natural killer" cells. The authors suggested that these additional effects may partly contribute to the Genasense mechanism of action.

Genta is a biopharmaceutical company located in Berkeley Heights, N.J.

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