Early Positive Results On Novel Breast Cancer Treatment

Company Releases Early Positive Results On Novel Breast Cancer Treatment.

Bloomberg News (7/30, Tirrell) reports Synta Pharmaceuticals Corporation’s shares rose the “most in more than four years” on Monday, after the company announced that preliminary results from a 12-week clinical trial. The trial, testing its ganetespib in patients with newly diagnosed locally advanced or metastatic HER2 positive or triple-negative breast cancer, showed that the investigational monotherapy achieved the pre-specified goals for advancing to next phase in the study. The Lexington, Massachusetts-based pharmaceutical firm said that of the initial “10 patients with triple-negative breast cancer,” two study participants achieved objective tumor response and three achieved stable disease (SD); and of the “five HER2-positive patients,” two achieved objective tumor response and two achieved SD, “warranting expansion of the study.”

        Also covering the trial results are the Wall Street Journal (7/30, Chaudhuri, Subscription Publication) and Reuters (7/30, Manocha).