Researchers affiliated with the Picoplatin Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC) Study Group have reported that follow-up of a Phase II study presented at the 2007 American Society of Clinical Oncology Meeting (ASCO) showed that picoplatin may improve survival compared to existing therapies in the treatment of patients diagnosed with SCLC who have previously received platinum-based therapies. The details of this study were presented at the 2007 meeting of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC).

Picoplatin is an oral or intravenous drug which was designed to overcome platinum resistance and to be less toxic than Platinol® (cisplatin) or Paraplatin® (carboplatin). In November of 2005, picoplatin was granted orphan drug status for the treatment of small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Picoplatin also appears to have activity in patients with hormone-refractory prostate cancer (HRPC).  In the SCLC trial presented at ASCO 2007, researchers from the US and Russia reported that picoplatin treatment resulted in disease control in almost half of platinum-resistant SCLC patients. This trial included 84 patients with resistant or refractory SCLC treated with intravenaous picoplatin. The overall response rate was 9% with 38% having stable disease. Median progression-free survival was 10 weeks and the median survival was 27 weeks. Toxicities appeared to be moderate. At the IASLC meeting researchers updated results from a clinical trial evaluating picoplatin among patients with SCLC who had stopped responding to prior therapy with platinum chemotherapy agents within six months of initial therapy. The disease control rate was 48.1%, and the median one-year survival for patients treated with picoplatin was nearly 18%. These authors stated that these results were better and less toxic than other agents for the treatment of refractory SCLC. These researchers are currently performing a Phase 3 trial (S-PEAR) which compares picoplatin to best supportive care in patients with refractory or resistant SCLC.

Reference: Karlin D, Breitz G, Baker G, and The Picoplatin SCLC Study Group. A Phase 2 study of picoplatin monotherapy for patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC) who have resistant or refractory disease or have relapsed within 180 days of completing first-line platinum-containing chemotherapy. Proceedings of the 2007 International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC). Session PD6.

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Picoplatin, a Third Generation Platinum Compound, Evaluated for SCLC, Prostate Cancer and Colorectal Cancer (07/13/2007)

Orphan-Drug Designation for Picoplatin (11/16/2005)