Radspherin®
Oncoinvent’s lead product candidate, Radspherin®, is a novel alpha-radiation therapy candidate designed for the local treatment of cancers that have spread to body cavities.
Radspherin® consists of billions of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) microparticles containing the radioactive element radium-224. After instillation into the targeted body cavity, the microparticles spread throughout creating a localized radiation field. Alpha radiation from radium-224 is powerful and effectively kills cancer cells by causing irreparable DNA damage, whereas the less than 0.1 mm range concentrates the treatment inside the body cavity thereby minimizing radiation exposure to surrounding healthy tissues.
It is anticipated that Radspherin® can treat several forms of cancer. Because it is a receptor independent treatment, its use will not be limited to patients with a certain antigen expression.
The first clinically pursued target area for Radspherin® is treatment of peritoneal carcinomatosis. Peritoneal carcinomatosis or metastasis occurs when cancer cells spread into the peritoneal cavity. The cancer cells usually originate from a tumor in another organ, but in rare cases the peritoneum itself is the primary tumor site. Peritoneal carcinomatosis affects a considerable number of patients with many underlying cancer types. It is associated with significant morbidity and mortality, highlighting the need for a novel treatment option like Radspherin® to avoid or delay the progression of peritoneal disease. In line with this, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Fast Track Designation for Radspherin® for the treatment of patients with peritoneal metastases from ovarian cancer.
Two phase 1/2a studies with Radspherin® in patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis from ovarian (RAD-18-001) and colorectal cancer (RAD-18-002) respectively are ongoing and have completed recruitment. Radspherin® has been well tolerated in these trials and encouraging signal of efficacy has been reported. Following the promising results, a randomized controlled phase 2 trial, assessing efficacy and safety of Radspherin® in patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis from ovarian (RAD-18-003) have been initiated.
Radspherin®
Oncoinvents lead product candidate is designed to treat cancer in the peritoneal cavity
Description of the product
- Inorganic microparticles as carriers of alpha-emitters
- High-power radiation with a short range
- Short half-life of the radionuclide
- Microparticles which degrade slowly in the body
- Regional retention of effective radiation dose
