CuraGen Corp. and TopoTarget have initiated patient dosing in a Phase II trial evaluating the antitumor activity of intravenous PXD101, a small molecule histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor, for the treatment of ovarian cancer. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is sponsoring this trial through an agreement with CuraGen for PXD101.

The Phase II trial is an open-label study of patients with either advanced platinum resistant ovarian tumors or micropapillary/borderline low malignant potential (LMP) ovarian carcinoma. Patients will receive intravenous PXD101 daily for five days in three-week cycles until disease progression. The primary endpoint for the study is the determination of objective disease response, as evaluated by the RECIST criteria. Secondary endpoints include safety and tolerability of PXD101, stable disease rates, duration of response, progression-free survival and median and overall survival.