Phenoxodiol

Has anyone heard of use of a drug called phenoxodiol for ovarian cancer?  I am seeing reports that indicated it "could have very promising results for women who are experiencing recurrances and who are platinum resistant.  Phenoxodiol restores sensitivity to drugs in chemo-resistant patients. (For example, patients who have failed taxanes might again respond to a taxane when taken with phenoxodiol).

There is a report on Internet that says the drug was given "fast track" status by the FDA (in 2004) because results in clinical trials were so promising.  Doesn't sound "fast track" to me! I found the Phase I/II clinical trial report but the status for enrollment is "closed" and I see no reports about results or future testing on patients.  Does anyone know about this or how to find results of a clinical test that is closed? I will ask my oncologist next week.  Thanks Rachael

[RAS50]

Here are excerpts from a couple of articles that better explains how this drug works.  Sure does sound promising! This article refers to this as the OVERTURE study and when I researched that, I did find a Nov 2006 report that stated this drug is now being tested in a Phase III clinical trial and could be on the market as soon as 12 - 18 months (from Nov 2006).  

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) 2006 Feb 22 - Phenoxodiol sensitizes ovarian carcinoma cells to chemotherapeutic agents by modulating apoptotic and antiapoptotic pathways, according to a report in the February issue of Cancer.

"Manipulation of the apoptotic cascade with compounds like phenoxodiol, which can disrupt the anti-apoptotic machinery in the cancer cells, presents a major hope for the development of therapies that not only prolong the life of the patients but may also cure them," Dr. Gil Mor from Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut told Reuters Health.



Yale Researchers Find Phenoxodiol Restores Sensitivity to Chemotherapy in Some Women With Ovarian, Fallopian Tube or Primary Peritoneal Cancer, in Interim Report on a Phase II Study

    WASHINGTON and SYDNEY, Australia, March 29, 2006  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --Phenoxodiol, an investigational anti-cancer drug that is being studied by leading researchers at Yale, has been found to be active and to restore platinum drug sensitivity to some patients who have shown prior resistance to platinum-based chemotherapy agents.  The data were presented at the Annual Meeting on Women's Cancer organized by the Society of Gynecologic Oncology.
    The study is designed to test the ability of phenoxodiol to reverse the resistance that develops in most ovarian cancers to standard chemotherapy. The study was conducted at Yale - New Haven Hospital, Conn., USA, as well as at the Royal Women's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia.
    "Phenoxodiol was developed to overcome this chemical resistance within tumor cells, thereby allowing standard anti-cancer drugs such as cisplatin, carboplatin and paclitaxel to continue to work in this aggressive form of cancer," said Michael Kelly, MD, Fellow at Yale University School of Medicine.
"What we are seeing with phenoxodiol is an encouragingly high proportion of tumors either shrinking or stabilizing with standard drugs, when we know that the tumor is unlikely to respond to those standard drugs alone."
    Patients with tumor shrinkage or stabilized tumors are collectively known as having controlled disease.  The particular relevance of this outcome is that the FDA's current draft guidance document suggests that prolonged survival of patients is a more appropriate clinical endpoint than tumor
response alone.  That is, the length of time that the tumor fails to grow, may be more meaningful in terms of patient survival than the incidence of tumor response on its own.
    The Yale researchers reported that 74 percent of patients with late-stage, platinum-resistant tumors who received the phenoxodiol and cisplatin combination showed evidence of a change in tumor growth by way of either tumor shrinkage or no increase in tumor size.
    The ability of phenoxodiol to effect patient survival and progression-free survival is to be tested in a pivotal study known as the OVATURE study, in which phenoxodiol will be used in combination with carboplatin in patients with tumors that are refractory or resistant to platinum therapy.

[Helmar]

Phase 3 has started in Australia, as well as in some parts of Europe, and also in the U.S.. Apparently there have been good results from Phases 1 and 2, and if Phase 3 continues to show promising results, it's been suggested that it could be on the market for Ovarian cancer in 12-18 months. My Oncol. offered me a place in the trial, but because of my very high CA.125 I didn't want to risk not actually getting the trial drug. The alternative was Placebo/Carboplatin.
We've all just got to hang in...try and stay on top of this beast, and hope for something great to come along to cure us all.
Wishing everyone the best, and hoping you are all keeping well.....Helmar.

[RAS50]

Amen, my dear!  That's exactly what we need to do.  I find this forum so helpful for me physically, mentally and spiritually.  I do plan to fight a hard fight while more and more research continues to provide us with alternative and better treatments- including a cure!  Thanks!  Rachael

[freshair]

Sounds promising. I think I read that this summer and put it in my file drawer. Yale is a good place. They also came out with an ovarian cancer test that China licensed. I read that in Medical News Today!

I have to clean my file drawer cause I have so much stuff.

I'm also excluded from a lot of clinical trials cause I have CNS involvement. (brain)

Thanks,
Helen

[alanpvegas]

It's basically synthetic Isoflavone analog.  In other words, it's based off the same stuff as fermented soy.  Like everything we are going back to nature.

You can get fermented soy supplements from nature's way or Halen 951 has been shown to work (but whoa very expensive and tastes bad but hey if it works...).

We're looking at at least a year or so for phenoxodiol because it's just now entering phase 3 trials :(

Also look into DIM supplements...they are making an analog from this as well to treat ovarian.

[StillFighting]

Hi, I have recently heared of this drug and am keeping a close eye on it as well. I can no longer take a platenum based drug due to septic shock, so is keeping my fingers crossed that this drug will work.