NEWARK, Calif., April 03, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rain Therapeutics Inc., a privately-held, clinical stage biotechnology company focused on biomarker-driven, small molecule therapeutics for patients with cancer, today announced new preclinical data on tarloxotinib (Tarlox) presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2019, held in Atlanta, Georgia from March 29-April 3, 2019. Three poster presentations detailed: 1) potent in vitro activity of Tarlox in a variety of EGFR and HER2 mutations, 2) data demonstrating that STEAP4 expression may serve as an additional biomarker to predict sensitivity to Tarlox in clinical trials, and 3) results of a comprehensive set of studies revealing the potential for Tarlox in treating NRG1 altered cancers.
Key findings from Rain presentations include:
- Tarlox significantly inhibited tumor growth and regressed tumors in an NRG1 ovarian cancer patient-derived xenograft model (100% reduction in tumor size in the group dosed with 48 mg/kg of Tarlox as compared to a 150% increase in tumor size in the control group).
- Tarlox inhibits proliferation of EGFR and HER2 Exon 20 insertion mutations and osimertinib-resistant mutations in vitro, demonstrating potent activity and potential to treat EGFR-driven cancers that have been unresponsive to the current standard of care.
- High STEAP4 expression is detected in EGFR mutant (del19, L858R and exon 20 insertion) lung cancer FFPE samples, and STEAP4 gene expression levels are significantly increased in EGFR-mutant non-small cell lung cancer samples as compared to wild type (p <0.05 in three cohorts of lung cancer datasets).
“Taken together, these exciting results provide strong evidence for the broad potential of Tarlox as a targeted cancer therapy,” said Avanish Vellanki, chief executive officer of Rain Therapeutics. “These data are encouraging as we continue our Phase 2 clinical trial of Tarlox in non-small cell lung cancer with EGFR exon 20 insertion and HER2 activating mutations, and we are looking forward to continuing to advance Tarlox through clinical development.”
Copies of the presentation materials can be accessed by visiting the Publications section of the Rain website.
About Rain Therapeutics Inc.
Rain Therapeutics Inc. is a privately-held biotechnology company developing biomarker-driven small molecule therapeutics for patients with cancer. Rain’s lead program, Tarloxotinib, is a hypoxia-activated prodrug of a potent pan-ErbB inhibitor in development as a treatment for non-small cell lung cancer patients with EGFR / ErbB Exon 20 insertion mutations. Rain Therapeutics Inc. has worldwide development and commercialization rights for Tarloxotinib. For more information, visit www.rainthera.com
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