Heph Begins Phase I/II Trial Of Oral Apoptone In Late-Stage Prostate Cancer

Ridgeland, MS -- Hollis-Eden Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (HEPH) has commenced a Phase I/II clinical trial with its oral drug candidate APOPTONE(TM) (HE3235) in late-stage prostate cancer patients who have failed hormone therapy and at least one round of chemotherapy treatment. Potential activity of the compound will be measured by standard prostate-specific antigen (PSA) tests and effect on well-established markers of progression free survival (PFS). In addition, the clinical trial will evaluate circulating tumor cell (CTC) enumeration as a marker for effectiveness for tumor treatment. Previous studies have shown that metastatic prostate cancer patients with less than 5 CTCs per 7.5 ml of blood have statistically better surviva...