Drugs used in the PRECEDENT Study:

The PRECEDENT study is a “combination” research study of Doxil® (pegylated liposomal doxorubicin) and EC145. Doxil® is approved for sale in the United States and is part of standard treatment for patients with ovarian cancer whose disease has progressed or recurred after prior platinum-based therapy. The experimental drug, EC145, will be given to some study participants in combination with Doxil®. Other participants will only receive Doxil®.

EC145

The study drug, EC145, is called a “conjugate” drug, which means two substances are attached to each other. EC145 is a combination of folate (vitamin B-9) and a type of anti-cancer drug known as a “vinca.”

Both “normal” cells and cancer cells need the vitamin folate to function. Some cancer cells demand more folate than their normal neighboring cells because of how fast they are growing. These cancer cells use a special method to capture the folate that is moving through the blood stream. They bypass the normal way folate enters the cells and use something called a folate receptor to capture (or grab) as much folate as they can out of the blood.

In this way we think EC145 (folate and vinca) is grabbed by the cancer cells. When this happens the vinca is released into the cancer cell to kill it. Also, cells in certain types of cancer tend to have more of these folate receptors than others. Ovarian cancer cells are one of the types that generally have a higher number of folate receptors.

Doxil®.

To learn more about Doxil®, click here.