Experimental Pfizer drug may help rare bone cancer

An early study of Pfizer's experimental drug figitumumab has found it could help fight a rare bone cancer called Ewing's sarcoma, researchers said on Thursday.

Scientists reporting in the Lancet Oncology journal said their results showed the anti-cancer drug, which targets the insulin-like growth-factor-1 receptor (IGF-1R), was well tolerated and should move to Phase 2 trials in Ewing's sarcoma.

Ewing's sarcoma is a rare cancer in which tumour cells are found in the bone or soft tissue, most commonly the pelvis, thigh, upper arm and ribs. It affects mainly male teenagers.

Researchers at Britain's Institute for Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust analysed the effect of the drug on some 28 patients with various types of sarcoma and found some tumours in those with Ewing's sarcoma shrank when they took figitumumab.

"Figitumumab is well tolerated and has antitumour activity in Ewing's sarcoma, warranting further investigation in this disease," the researchers wrote in the study.

Pfizer halted a Phase 3 trial of figitumumab in late stage lung cancer in October after safety monitors overseeing the study found more serious adverse events, including deaths.

The British scientists said their study, funded by Pfizer, found figitumumab can be safe for both adult and child sarcomas and patients were now being recruited for Phase 2 trials.