Eisai Oncology to Present Data Analyses on Halaven® (eribulin) at 36th Annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium

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Eisai Europe Limited

05 Dec, 2013, 00:01 GMT

HATFIELD, England, December 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Eisai announced today that four abstracts highlighting new study results will be presented during the 2013 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. The meeting will be held 10-14 December 2013 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas.  

The studies highlight Eisai's current and ongoing clinical research efforts with eribulin and reinforce the company's commitment to the breast cancer community.

"As part of Eisai's human health care mission, Eisai gives first thought to patients and their families by developing drugs for diseases with unmet medical need," said Kenichi Nomoto, Ph.D., President, Oncology Product Creation Unit at Eisai. "Nowhere is this more compelling than in oncology, one of Eisai's long-standing therapeutic areas of focus."

The following Eisai abstracts have been accepted for presentation at this year's San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium:

        Product/
    Poster Number    Abstract Name

    Eribulin         Eribulin mesylate as first-line therapy for locally
    P3-13-05         recurrent or metastatic HER2-negative breast cancer: Results
                     of a phase 2, multicenter, single-arm study McIntyre et al.
    Eribulin         Phase 2, multicenter, single-arm study of eribulin mesylate
    P4-12-12         + trastuzumab as first-line therapy for locally recurrent or
                     metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer
                     Wilks et al.

    Eribulin         A phase III, open-label, randomized study of eribulin versus
    P3-13-03         capecitabine in patients with metastatic breast cancer
                     (MBC): Effect of post-progression anti-cancer treatments
                     (PPT) and metastatic progression events on overall survival
                     Awada et al.

    Eribulin         Effect of age on tolerability and efficacy of eribulin and
    P3-13-04         capecitabine in patients with metastatic breast cancer
                     treated in study 301
                     Kaufman et al.

The information discussed in this release is about investigational uses for a European Commission approved product. It is not intended to convey conclusions of efficacy and safety.

Notes to Editors

Halaven® (eribulin)

Eribulin is a non-taxane, microtubule dynamics inhibitor indicated for the treatment of patients with breast cancer who have previously received at least two chemotherapeutic regimens for metastatic disease and whose prior therapy should have included an anthracycline and a taxane.Eribulin belongs to a class of antineoplastic agents, the halichondrins, which are natural products, isolated from the marine sponge Halichondria okadai. It is believed to work by inhibiting the growth phase of microtubule dynamics without affecting the shortening phase and sequesters tubulin into non-productive aggregates. Research indicates that eribulin may have a novel inhibitory effect on tumour metastasis by suppressing the expression in epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) gene sets.[1],[2],[3] EMT is a phenomenon in which cells acquire characteristics that allow them to develop into tumours and is highly significant in the infiltration and metastasise of cancer.

Further analysis of the MOA for eribulin has shown that eribulin also improves blood perfusion in tumour tissues meaning that it increases the amount of oxygen available to tumours.[4] When tumours are deprived of oxygen they are more likely to metastasise and as such eribulin works to inhibit metastasis. Following treatment with eribulin, tumours were less aggressive and invasive.

Eisai in Oncology

Our commitment to meaningful progress in oncology research, built on scientific expertise, is supported by a global capability to conduct discovery and preclinical research, and develop small molecules, therapeutic vaccines, and biologic and supportive care agents for cancer across multiple indications.

About Eisai

Eisai is one of the world's leading research and development (R&D) based pharmaceutical companies and we define our corporate mission as "giving first thought to patients and their families and to increasing the benefits health care provides," which we call human health care (hhc).

Eisai concentrates its R&D activities in three key areas:

  • Oncology including: anticancer therapies; tumour regression, tumour suppression, antibodies, etc.
  • Neuroscience, including: Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy, pain and weight loss
  • Vascular/Immunological reaction including: thrombocytopenia, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, inflammatory bowel disease

With operations in the U.S., Asia, Europe and its domestic home market of Japan, Eisai employs more than 10,000 people worldwide. From its EMEA Knowledge Centre in Hatfield, UK, Eisai has recently expanded its business operations to include Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Russia and Oceania (EMEA). Eisai EMEA has sales and marketing operations in over 20 markets, including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Ireland, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Portugal, Czech Republic, Slovakia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Russia and the Middle East.

For further information please visit our web site http://www.eisai.co.uk

References

1. McCracken P.J, Ito. K, Yanagimachi M, et al. Eribulin alters vascular function in human triple-negative (TN) breast MX-1 and MDA-MB-231 tumor xenograft models as measured by DCE-MRI. AACR abstract 2013 abstract # 4502  

2. Dezso Z, Oestreicher J, Weaver A et al. Gene expression profiling (GEP) reveals Epithelial Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) genes selectively differentiating eribulin sensitive breast cancer cell lines. AACR abstract 2013 abstract # 1522

3. Agoulnik SI, Oestreicher JL, Taylor NH et al. Eribulin and Paclitaxel differentially affect gene expression profiling of blood vessel cells and in vitro angiogenesis in co-cultures of human endothelial cells with pericytes. AACR abstract 2013 abstract # 3830

4. Matsui J, Toyama O, Ino M et al. Eribulin caused re-modeling of tumor vasculature altering gene expression profiling in angiogenesis and Epithelial Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) signaling pathway of host cells within human breast cancer cell (BCC) xenografts in nude mice. AACR abstract 2013 abstract # 1413

Date of preparation: December 2013

Job code: Halaven-0288