November 20, 2003

BIRMINGHAM, AL — “Antisense” makes sense for patients with advanced malignant melanoma (MM), according to results of a Phase III clinical trial presented last week at the 6th annual Perspectives in Melanoma meeting in Miami. Patients from UAB were included in the study.

Dr. Robert M. Conry, associate professor of medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said the drug Genasense (Bcl-2 antisense oligonucleotide), used prior to chemotherapy, “can significantly enhance the antitumor effectiveness of dacarbazine, a conventional chemotherapy.”

Genasense is called an antisense agent because it cancels out certain cellular messages. In human metastatic melanoma, Genasense blocks a protein called Bcl-2 that prevents the cancer cells from dying. Bcl-1 is expressed in more than 80 percent of cases of this disease. When given prior to regular treatment, Genasense keeps the body from blocking the chemotherapy’s cancer killing effects.

“Advanced MM is invariably fatal,” Conry said. “While various therapies, alone or in combination, have shown low anti-tumor response rates, virtually no drug therapy has been proven to improve survival for these patients. With the results from this trial, there is cause for some hope in this field.”

He said that Genasense’s manufacturer, Genta Inc., is expected to use the results of this study to ask the Food and Drug Administration for approval to market the drug.