Singapore: Assistant Professor (Dr) Robert H I Andtbacka presented a summary of his ongoing study with Viralytics' Cavatak clinical trial at the HemOnc Today Melanoma and Cutaneous Malignancies meeting in New York, US, on March 22. Cavatak is currently in phase II of the CALM (Cavatak in late stage melanoma) study.

Dr Andtbacka's presentation was entitled, 'Current Status of Injectable Therapy', and discussed the activity of a number of injectable investigational products including Dr Andtbacka is from the University of Utah-based HCI site and is a principal investigator on the CALM study. HCI is a US National Cancer Institute designated as a cancer research facility and hospital.

Dr Andtbacka reported on his experience with ten patients enrolled in the CALM study and revealed that it has been generally well tolerated, with patients attending an average of 8.9 injection visits. At the HCI site, three patients have met the primary endpoint of immune related progression free survival (irPFS) based on investigator assessment at six months with two patients progressing to the extension study. Until date, five-of-ten-patients at the HCI have displayed objective tumour responses (investigator assessed RECIST 1.1). It is noteworthy that reductions have been observed in both Cavatak injected and non-injected (metastatic) lesions.

Dr Andtbacka commented that, "These early results with Cavatak are encouraging. We look forward to enrolling further patients and continuing the study to its conclusion."

Viralytics CEO, Dr Malcolm McColl, said that, "We are very pleased to have the Huntsman site as a participant in our CALM study. Dr Andtbacka is a thought leader in the field of injectable therapy for melanoma with considerable experience of other investigational products."