Verastem will present the results at the upcoming American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting on 1 June 2024. Image credit: Shutterstock/CI Photos.
The US biopharma company announced the initial interim safety and efficacy results as it gears up for a presentation at the upcoming American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting on 1 June 2024.
Patients in the dose level I cohort received 2.4mg of avutometinib twice a week and 200mg of defactinib twice a day for three weeks out of every four. Patients also were administered with 800mg/m² of gemcitabine and 125mg/m² of nab-paclitaxel on days one, eight and 15.
Verastem’s chief medical officer John Hayslip said the trial results “are encouraging” and “demonstrate the importance of targeting the RAS/MAPK pathway, as more than 90% of pancreatic tumours have a KRAS mutation”.
Hayslip added: “We continue to progress the study evaluating other dose and schedule regimens to determine the recommended Phase II dose in the trial.”
Whilst Verastem touted positive efficacy results, the biopharma did report 19 treatment-emergent serious adverse events (SAEs) from 12 patients in the trial. 11 patients had Grade 3 or higher SAEs, including biliary obstruction, febrile neutropenia, and pulmonary embolism, amongst others. Two participants left the trial due to adverse events.
From the dose level 1 cohort, there was one case of dose-limiting toxicity of febrile neutropenia. Verastem stated the dose cohort was cleared after additional patients were evaluated.