Eli Lilly announces ‘favourable’ enzastaurin trial results

Eli Lilly has presented data from a phase II clinical study of enzastauarin as a second or third line treatment for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

The company described these results as “encouraging”, with median progression-free survival at 1.9 months with a 14 per cent progression free survival rate at six months – with median overall survival being 9.9 months.

Enzastaurin is an orally-administered serine threonine kinase inhibitor that targets and blocks pathways that are over-expressed in a range of cancers – the PI3K/AKT and PKC-beta signalling pathways – in order to suppress the proliferation of tumour cells and induce the death of these cells.

Richard Gaynor, vice-president of cancer research and head of the global oncology platform at Lilly, said: “These data in NSCLC shed new light on the potential versatility of this agent.”

He added that the company would aim to continue assessing the efficacy and safety of this compound in order to discover other therapeutic areas in which it may be of benefit to patients.

Last week, Lilly announced that it would be presenting over 76 cancer studies at this year’s Asco annual meeting.