Epizyme Announces First Patient Dosed in a Clinical Trial

Epizyme, Inc. (NASDAQ: EPZM) has announced that the first patient has been dosed in the company’s phase 2 study of tazemetostat. The study is targeting adult patients with genetically defined tumors.
According to the press release:

The phase 1 dose escalation study in pediatric patients with the same tumor types is also now open for enrollment. The cancers being studied in these trials, INI1-negative tumors, certain SMARCA4-negative tumors and synovial sarcomas, are aggressive cancers that are poorly served by current treatments. The first sites activated for adult enrollment are Northwestern University, MD Anderson Cancer Center and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and the first sites activated for pediatric enrollment are the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. Additional study sites in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Australia are planned to be added over the upcoming months.
“Life-threatening rare tumors such as rhabdoid tumors, epithelioid sarcomas and synovial sarcomas affect children and young adults who are in need of novel effective therapies since the standard approaches are only marginally useful,” said George Demetri, M.D., Director, Center for Sarcoma and Bone Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School. “We are enthusiastic about evaluating tazemetostat in our patients with these forms of sarcomas since the molecular mechanism is so compelling, especially with the recent identification of mutations in INI1 or SMARCA4 as genetic drivers for these cancers.”

Click here to read the full press release.