PHILADELPHIA (August 12, 2021) – Namrata “Neena” Vijayvergia, MD, assistant chief of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology at Fox Chase Cancer Center, has received funding from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) to evaluate neratinib, also known by its brand name Nerlynx, in combination with another drug for the treatment of refractory gastric and esophageal cancer.
“The goal is to identify if the combination is safe and also look at efficacy as a secondary outcome,” said Vijayvergia. “We hope it will open up more options for treating this subgroup of cancer patients.”
Neratinib helps delay the spread of cancer cells through blocking abnormal proteins that tells cancer cells to multiply. It is currently approved for treating patients with selected HER2-positive breast cancers.
Vijayvergia’s project will be a multicenter phase 1 trial of neratinib and fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan, an antibody drug conjugate that is also used for treatment of unresectable or metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer, and gastroesophageal junction and gastric cancer after previous treatment targeting HER2.
Her project proposal was one of three funded after peer review by a scientific committee made up of medical oncologists from NCCN member institutions. The deciding factors for funding included scientific merit, existing data, feasibility, and the types of studies needed to further evaluate neratinib. The NCCN Oncology Research Program will oversee the two-year studies, which will begin later this year.
“These projects will add to our understanding of the optimal ways to target these pathways and further the management of these diseases, which include rare conditions,” said Crystal S. Denlinger, MD, FACP, senior vice president and chief scientific officer at NCCN.
Puma Biotechnology Inc., the biopharmaceutical company that makes neratinib, is providing $1.4 million in overall funding for the research and is supplying the drug for the studies as well.
“We are committed to exploring the efficacy of neratinib in a diverse range of tumor types for the benefit of affected patient populations, and we look forward to the insights provided by these studies,” said Alan H. Auerbach, chief executive officer and president of Puma Biotechnology.