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Aeterna Zentaris: Encouraging Clinical Data for Perifosine in Hodgkin Lymphoma Presented at ASH Meeting
QUÉBEC CITY, Dec. 13, 2011 /CNW Telbec/ - Aeterna Zentaris Inc. (NASDAQ: AEZS) (TSX:
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About this update from Cosciens Biopharma Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"\n\n\n\n\n\nQUÉBEC CITY, Dec. 13, 2011 /CNW Telbec/ - Aeterna Zentaris Inc. (NASDAQ:\n AEZS) (TSX: AEZ) (the \"Company\") today reported encouraging clinical\n data for an ongoing Phase 2 clinical study in patients with\n refractory/relapsed Hodgkin Lymphoma. Preliminary response data showed\n that perifosine combined with sorafenib significantly increased median\n progression free survival (PFS) in refractory/relapsed Hodgkin Lymphoma\n patients with high phosphorylation levels of Erk and Akt as compared to\n patients with low baseline phosphorylation levels of Erk and Akt. Data\n were presented yesterday by Anna Guidetti, MD, Fondazione IRCCS Instituto Nazionale Tumori, Milan, Italy, during the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual\n Meeting and Exposition currently being held in San Diego, California.\n\n\nDr. Carmelo Carlo-Stella, Associate Professor of Oncology at the\n University of Milano and Head of the Experimental Therapeutics Unit at\n Humanitas Cancer Center stated, \"Identification of biomarkers\n predicting response to targeted therapy is a critical issue. Our study\n shows that Hodgkin Lymphoma patients who will respond to the combined\n perifosine/sorafenib therapy can be identified by a simple laboratory\n test performed prior to therapy initiation. In an era of strong\n financial constraints, this is a major advancement allowing not only a\n better selection of patients that might benefit of perifosine/sorafenib\n therapy, but also a positive impact on the cost-effectiveness of\n targeted therapy.\"\n\n\nJuergen Engel, PhD, President and CEO of Aeterna Zentaris added, \"We\n would first like to thank Dr. Carlo-Stella and all those involved in\n this trial for their exciting work and clinical data achieved with\n perifosine in combination with sorafenib, which favourably demonstrate\n targeted therapeutic activity for patients with high phosphorylation\n levels of Erk and Akt. We now look forward to further\n perifosine/sorafenib combination studies which will validate the\n correlative effect of patients' baseline phosphorylation levels and\n clinical response outcome.\"\n\n\nThe Phase 2 Study\n\n\nThe abstract titled, \"Phosphorylation Levels of Extracellular-Signal Regulated Kinase (Erk)\n and Akt in Circulating Lymphocytes Predict Response to Targeted Therapy\n with Perifosine and Sorafenib i...