ADVENTRX Pharmaceuticals Inc. presented positive preclinical data from a study with CoFactor in a colorectal cancer model at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) special conference in cancer research, "Colorectal Cancer: molecular pathways and therapies."

The study suggests that CoFactor in combination with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and oxaliplatin may be an effective chemotherapeutic regimen against colorectal cancer with higher efficacy and lower toxicity than the equivalent 5-FU, oxaliplatin and leucovorin regimen, informs a company release.

ADVENTRX's director of preclinical programmes Mark J. Cantwell and chief technical officer Joan M. Robbins, co-authored the study titled, "5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate enhances anti tumour activity and reduces toxicity of 5-Fluorouracil plus oxaliplatin combination therapy in a colorectal cancer xenograph model."

"While combination therapy with 5-FU, leucovorin and oxaliplatin has shown improved clinical efficacy in treating colorectal cancer compared with 5-FU and leucovorin, optimum efficacy with oxaliplatin combination therapy might not be achieved in this combination due to multiple factors. Among these is oxaliplatin's well-characterised toxicity and that leucovorin may contribute to the severity of 5-FU's systemic toxicity. Preclinical data suggest that CoFactor as a replacement for leucovorin may result in improved overall efficacy and lower toxicity of 5-FU containing regimens. CoFactor has already demonstrated anti tumour activity with an apparent safer toxicity profile in combination with 5-FU in Phase I and Phase II clinical trials in treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer," said Dr. Cantwell.

ADVENTRX Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical research and development company focused on introducing new technologies for anticancer and antiviral treatments that improve the performance and safety of existing drugs, by addressing significant problems such as drug metabolism, toxicity, bioavailability and resistance.