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Newly Published Data Shows Potential of Peregrine's Tarvacin(TM) to Treat Primary and Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer

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PRNewswire
07:00 a.m. 01/11/2006


- Study in International Journal of Cancer Shows Tarvacin Equivalent in Combination with Gemcitabine Reduced Metastatic Disease by 80% at Principal Sites of Metastasis - - Results Expected to Provide Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Trials -
TUSTIN, Calif., Jan 11, 2006 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (PPHM), a biopharmaceutical company with a portfolio of innovative, clinical-stage product candidates for viral diseases and cancer, today announced preclinical results showing that 3G4, the mouse equivalent of Tarvacin(TM) Anti-Cancer, was effective at controlling the growth and spread of pancreatic cancer as a single agent and had significantly enhanced efficacy when combined with the standard-of-care chemotherapy gemcitabine. Pancreatic cancer is very difficult to treat and has the lowest 5-year survival rate of all malignancies. In this study, the Tarvacin equivalent antibody demonstrated promising activity against the primary tumor itself as well as the metastases that actually cause most pancreatic cancer deaths. The study will be published in the International Journal of Cancer (volume 118, edition 10) and is currently available online (published online: 13 Dec 2005, DOI: 10.1002/ijc.21684.)

Tarvacin Anti-Cancer is in a multi-center Phase l trial for solid tumor cancers. It is a monoclonal antibody that binds to certain phospholipids, components of the cell structure that are usually located inside normal cells but which become exposed on the outside of the cells that line the blood vessels of tumors, creating a specific target for anti-cancer treatments. This study compared the Tarvacin equivalent antibody and gemcitabine as single agents and in combination in two realistic and clinically relevant mouse models of pancreatic cancer.