A promising but controversial new approach to treating blood cancer could be in trouble in the earliest innings of human testing after Celgene pulled the plug on a trailblazing clinical trial.
On Monday, Celgene (CELG) terminated a Phase 1 study of CC-90002, which targets a protein that helps cancer cells stay out of the immune system’s crosshairs. In an update to ClinicalTrials.gov, Celgene said it canceled the CC-90002 study because early results “did not offer a sufficiently encouraging profile” to move forward.
Celgene’s drug is part of a new class of therapies meant to kill tumors by blocking the protein, which is called CD47 and which sends a molecular “don’t-eat-me” signal to the immune system. Such treatments have led to dramatic results in tests on animals, but researchers have questioned whether those effects can be safely replicated in humans.
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