Celgene Corporation reported preliminary clinical data at the XXIII Chemotherapy Foundation Symposium in New York City, comparing the efficacy and safety of the combination of thalidomide and topotecan vs. topotecan being studied in a Phase II clinical study for the treatment of recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer in patients who had received prior treatments.

"Our clinical findings have shown that thalidomide may slow down the growth of ovarian cancer, which could mean more options for physicians treating ovarian cancer, though further clinical studies are warranted," says Levi Downs, assistant professor of gynecologic oncology and researcher at the University of Minnesota's Medical School and Cancer Center who led this study.

At the Chemotherapy Foundation Symposium oral presentation, Levi S. Downs Jr., assistant professor of the University of Minnesota Medical School, division of gynecologic oncology, Minneapolis, highlighted a multicenter, randomised Phase II trial comparing the clinical response in women with recurrent ovarian cancer treated with topotecan with or without thalidomide. Dr. Downs reported that patients in the topotecan plus thalidomide arm reported an overall response rate of 50% compared to 22% of patients in the topotecan only arm, claims a company release.

Thalomid (thalidomide), manufactured by Celgene Corporation, received US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance on July 16, 1998 for the acute treatment of cutaneous manifestations of moderate to severe erythema nodosum leprosum (ENL) and as maintenance therapy for prevention and suppression of the cutaneous manifestations of ENL recurrence.

Ovarian cancer is the fifth most common cancer among women, excluding non- melanoma skin cancers. The American Cancer Society estimates that about 25,580 new cases of ovarian cancer will be diagnosed in the United States during 2004. Ovarian cancer accounts for 4% of all cancers in women. Ovarian cancer ranks fourth in cancer deaths among women, accounting for more deaths than any other cancer of the female reproductive system

Celgene Corporation, headquartered in Summit, New Jersey, is an integrated biopharmaceutical company engaged primarily in the discovery, development and commercialisation of novel therapies for the treatment of cancer and inflammatory diseases through gene and protein regulation.