BETHLEHEM, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--St. Luke’s University Health Network is one of three sites nationwide chosen to enroll patients in a new study using the therapeutic agent PV-10 for late-stage liver cancer. Sanjiv Agarwala, MD of St. Luke’s Cancer Center, internationally recognized melanoma investigator and Chief of Medical Oncology and Hematology for St. Luke’s University Health Network, serves as the principal investigator of this Phase I clinical trial.
PV-10 is a 10 percent solution of Rose Bengal, designed to selectively target and destroy cancer cells without harming surrounding healthy tissue. The drug, designed by Provectus Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., a development-stage biopharmaceutical company, has demonstrated positive results in clinical studies for melanoma, helping to prolong the lives of people with advanced disease. When injected into a lesion, PV-10 helps to control disease progression and inhibit growth. It also has been shown to elicit a positive bystander effect on nearby lesions that have not been injected.
“Since PV-10 has cleared Phase II testing for melanoma due to its proven effectiveness, it was time to evaluate the drug to see if it could benefit patients with other types of cancer who have exhausted standard treatment options,” says Dr. Agarwala.
According to Dr. Agarwala, the new PV-10 liver trial is open to adult patients with metastatic disease who have at least one liver lesion that has either originated in or spread to the liver and who have failed standard therapies. All patients enrolled in this open-label study receive the same treatment; a liver tumor is injected with the PV-10 solution. The procedure is performed by St. Luke’s interventional radiologist Ellen Redstone, MD.
St. Luke’s is also one of three sites nationwide to participate in the Compassionate Use study for PV-10 for people with late-stage cutaneous or subcutaneous cancers who have run out of treatment options. Compassionate use programs provide access to experimental therapeutic agents to patients before the investigational drugs receive final FDA approval. For more information, call St. Luke’s Network Clinical Trials office at 484-503-4151.
