The first patient tests for a cancer drug that pinpoints many different types of cancer are underway by San Francisco-based biopharmaceutical company CytomX Therapeutics Inc.
The PROCLAIM study will assess whether the company's CX-2009 compound can effectively distinguish high levels of the CD-166 antigen, which can also be present in healthy cells. CX-2009 finds the malignant tissue a cancer patient’s body is fighting and attacks it, according to a press release.
The CD-166 antigen is present in the solid tumors of breast, prostate and endometrial cancer, the release said.
“The unique targeting ability of our Probody platform allows us to pursue targets not accessible to conventional antibody drug conjugates," CytomX Therapeutics President and CEO Sean McCarthy said in the release. “By targeting CD-166 and localizing the activity of theCX-2009 Probody therapeutic to the tumor,” he continued, “we could potentially treat a number of cancers for which few, if any, treatment options exist.”
