Sirtex wins first tick for kidney cancer treatment

Sirtex says a pilot study found its “bead” treatment is safe for use in patients with the most common form of kidney cancer.

Sirtex’s Spheres product involves tiny radioactive beads that are inserted into the blood supply to fight cancer.

Sirtex Medical says a pilot clinical study found its novel cancer treatment is safe for use in patients with primary renal cell carcinoma, the most common form of kidney cancer.

The study was the first into the use of Sirtex’s SIR-Spheres product — where tiny radioactive beads are inserted into the blood supply to fight cancer from the inside — for treating cancer outside of the liver.

“We are pleased with the initial results of the RESIRT study,” said David Cade, Sirtex’s (SRX) chief medical officer. “We look forward to examining the impact of our innovative intervention on survival outcomes in due course.”

The primary endpoint of the study was safety and toxicity at 30 days after the treatment, Sirtex said.

The study found the treatment was delivered without any dose-limiting toxicity and there were no serious adverse events.

In terms of efficacy, the best outcome was partial tumour response in 5.3 per cent of the 19 patients studied, with 89.5 per cent of the disease stable and 5.3 per cent progressive.

Dow Jones