ASH 2012

Advances in treatments for haematologic malignancies from the Sarah Cannon Research Institute presented at ASH 2012 (4/5)

Dr Ian Flinn – Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Nashville, USA


Can you tell us about the exciting phase I trial of IPI-145

This is very exciting. We are working with a drug called IPI-145 which is a PI3 kinase delta and gamma specific inhibitor. So at lower doses it’s specific for the isoform delta and of course that’s very similar to the drug GS-1101, used to be known as CAL-101, which has made a significant difference for patients with low grade lymphoma, for CLL it’s a very, very exciting drug. This drug is similar to that, it has the delta inhibitor but when you go up and you give higher doses it also picks up gamma. Why is that important? Well, it may be important in more aggressive lymphoproliferative disorders; it may be very important in patients with T-cell lymphomas. So we’re presenting today the results of this trial and it’s early on but the results are very good, it seems to be very well tolerated. The response rates are high across a variety of different lymphoproliferative disorders. I’m really excited by this and it’s a lot of fun working with this molecule.

What are the next steps with the research on this trial?

The next stage is clearly to expand. We have some expansion cohorts that we’re looking at in low grade lymphoma and CLL. One is higher doses, we’re going to look at the other hematologic malignancies and see whether there’s activity there. Ultimately, of course, the next question is can you combine it with regimens such as bendamustine, rituximab. It’s early on but it’s very similar to my experience that we had when we worked with CAL-101 in the very early days.