AB Science announces that a new independent publication confirms the role of masitinib as a potential therapy in pancreatic cancer - Seite 2

Andrew Hendifar, MD, MPH, Head of Gastrointestinal Oncology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles said: “This research provides new and robust evidence confirming the relevance of targeting mast cells in pancreatic cancer. Furthermore, the identified tissue biomarkers could potentially be used as an alternative or additional marker to pain when initiating masitinib treatment in patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer.”

As a reminder [2], study AB12005 met its primary objective to demonstrate increase in survival in pancreatic cancer patients with pain. In the population with unresectable locally advanced tumors with pain, the masitinib treatment-arm showed a significant improvement in overall survival (OS) relative to the control arm. The between group difference in median OS was 1.8 months (p=0.007) in favor of masitinib (13.0 months in masitinib arm versus 11.2 months in control group), with a 0.46 hazard ratio (HR) of death, which represents a reduction in risk of death of 54% for masitinib-treated patients relative to control. Results on the primary endpoint were consistent with secondary analysis in progression free survival (PFS), which measures the time to tumor progression or death (whichever occurs first) from the start of treatment. The between group difference in median PFS was 1.8 months (p=0.039) in favor of masitinib (7.4 months in masitinib arm versus 5.6 months in control group), with a 0.47 hazard ratio representing a reduction in risk of having a progression or death of 53%. The safety of masitinib 6.0 mg/kg/day in combination with gemcitabine compared favorably to that of gemcitabine as a single agent, with fewer adverse event and severe adverse events reported in the masitinib arm as compared with the control arm.

[1] Ammendola, M.; Curr, G.; Laface, C.; Zuccal, V.; Memeo, R.; Luposella, F.; Laforgia, M.; Zizzo, N.; Zito, A.; Loisi, D.; et al. Mast Cells Positive for c‐Kit Receptor and Tryptase Correlate with Angiogenesis in Cancerous and Adjacent Normal Pancreatic Tissue. Cells 2021, 10, 444. https://doi.org/10.3390/cells10020444

[2] AB Science press release. Dec 04,2020. http://www.ab-science.com/years/2020/

About Cells
Cells is an international, peer-reviewed, open access, journal of cell biology, molecular biology, and biophysics. Cells is published monthly online by MDPI.

About masitinib
Masitinib is a new orally administered tyrosine kinase inhibitor that targets mast cells and macrophages, important cells for immunity, through inhibiting a limited number of kinases. Based on its unique mechanism of action, masitinib can be developed in a large number of conditions in oncology, in inflammatory diseases, and in certain diseases of the central nervous system. In oncology due to its immunotherapy effect, masitinib can have an effect on survival, alone or in combination with chemotherapy. Through its activity on mast cells and microglia and consequently the inhibition of the activation of the inflammatory process, masitinib can have an effect on the symptoms associated with some inflammatory and central nervous system diseases and the degeneration of these diseases.