Empowered Patient Podcast New Treatments for CTCL a Rare Form of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma with Dr. Myron Czuczman Citius Pharmaceuticals
Dr. Myron Czuczman is the Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President of Citius Pharmaceuticals, which is developing an advanced treatment for cutaneous T cell lymphoma, CTCL, a rare form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The original version of their drug ONTAK has been reformulated, and I/ONTAK is now in clinical trials to confirm efficacy in controlling severe itching and improving the quality of life for patients.
Myron explains, "This is a protein, a fusion protein, of interleukin-2, the whole molecule that has been fused with diphtheria toxin. With respect to any of the cells like the cells we're talking about, CTCL, it actually binds to the IL-2 receptor, internalizes, and in that manner, kills the tumor cells."
"The agent ONTAK was taken off the market, and this new version, I/ONTAK or E7777, is a reformulation. It's more purified and it's about one and a half to two times more bioactive than the original ONTAK. From the clinical trials which led to our submission of the BLA recently, we've looked at the safety and efficacy, and it's consistent with the original formulation. There are no new safety issues, and it has good activity in patients, even heavily pretreated patients."
"The issue here is, unfortunately, this disease, the relapsed/refractory CTCL, is incurable. The only time one has a chance to cure it is if you get it early, if you have young patients that have what we call an HLA compatible donor. In a very small number of patients, an allogeneic stem cell transplant could be curative. But the vast majority of these patients, who are elderly, are not candidates for allogeneic transplant. So, unfortunately, these are incurable individuals with bad diseases."
@CitiusPharma #Cancer #Lymphoma #RareDisease #Immunotherapy $CTXR