Dusquetide reduces the duration of severe oral mucositis (OM) by up to half, according to the results of a phase 2a study accepted for publication in the Journal of Biotechnology.1
OM is almost ubiquitous among patients with head and neck cancers, and the condition is severe in nearly 75% of patients with OM. The authors estimate that severe OM increases care-related costs by about $18,000 per patient.
In animal models, dusquetide reduced the duration of OM by about 50%; for the present study, researchers tested the efficacy of OM among human patients.
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Among 96 evaluable patients of the 111 enrolled to this study, those who received dusquetide had severe OM for an average of only 9 days, as opposed to 18 days for those who received placebo. The drug did not impair tumor response to anticancer treatment.
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Adverse events were similar in both groups.
The authors conclude that preclinical models were indicative of results in human participants. Dusquetide is efficacious for reducing OM duration and was well-tolerated by patients with head and neck cancer.
Reference
- Kudrimoti M, Curtis A, Azawic S, et al. Dusquetide: a novel innate defense regulator demonstrating a significant and consistent reduction in the duration of oral mucositis in preclinical data and a randomized, placebo-controlled phase 2a clinical study. J. Biotechnol. In press. doi: 10.1016/j.jbiotec.2016.10.010