Cantargia AB (STO:CANTA), a biotechnology company developing antibody-based treatments for life-threatening diseases, on Friday announced the presentation of interim results from its clinical phase I/II trial CANFOUR of lead candidate CAN04 (nidanilimab) in a poster presentation at the ESMO Congress 2018 in Munich, Germany.

The company said it presented data from 16 patients with advanced cancer treated with weekly infusions between 1 mg/kg and 6 mg/kg were presented.

This poster presentation, with the title 'A first-in-class, first-in-human phase I/IIa trial of CAN04, targeting Interleukin-1 Receptor Accessory Protein (IL1RAP), in patients with solid tumours', was given by the coordinating investigator Professor Ahmad Awada, Institut Jules Bordet, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium. The poster is available on Cantargia's website, https://www.cantargia.com.

According to the company, this presentation included data from the cut-off date, 5 October 2018, on 16 heavily pretreated patients with advanced colorectal cancer (nine), non-small cell lung cancer (three) or pancreatic cancer (four) treated with weekly infusions at escalating dose levels from 1 mg/kg to 6 mg/kg. Prior to CAN04, the patients had received an average of four different cancer therapies.

The most common side effects of CAN04 were infusion related reactions and related events, such as nausea, fatigue and fever. These side effects were generally associated with the first dose and were reversible. It can be concluded that 6 mg/kg is a safe dose and the maximum tolerated dose of CAN04 is higher. This trial is now investigating treatment at 10 mg/kg of CAN04 before moving into phase IIa.