Benzinga | Apr 12, 2021 10:05AM EDT

Cardiff Oncology Saturday Morning Announced Collab With MIT To Present Gene Signature Analyses Data Identifying Androgen-Independent Mechanism for Onvansertib-Abiraterone Synergy in mCRPC

Cardiff Oncology, Inc. (Nasdaq: CRDF), a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing onvansertib to treat cancers with the greatest medical need for new treatment options, including KRAS-mutated colorectal cancer, pancreatic cancer and castrate-resistant prostate cancer, in collaboration with scientists in the Center for Precision Cancer Medicine at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), today announced that new gene signature and mechanistic analyses related to its ongoing Phase 2 trial of onvansertib in metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) were featured in a virtual oral poster presentation at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2021.



Analyses presented in the poster suggest that the androgen receptor signaling inhibitor (ARSi) abiraterone sensitizes certain prostate cancer cells to onvansertib by upregulating a set of mitosis related genes and disrupting mitotic spindle orientation. These results are consistent with previous findings showing that onvansertib and abiraterone synergize in an androgen receptor (AR)-independent manner in-vitro and in-vivo.

"The latest results from our collaborative studies with Cardiff Oncology provide important insight into the mechanisms of synergy between onvansertib and abiraterone in mCRPC," said Michael B. Yaffe, M.D., Ph.D., David H. Koch Professor of Science and Professor of Biology and Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Data showing a cellular mechanism for how these two compounds synergize in an AR-independent manner provide a strong scientific rationale for Cardiff Oncology's ongoing Phase 2 trial and explain how the addition of onvansertib can improve clinical outcomes in patients showing initial abiraterone resistance. We have also identified a set of genes that appear to drive this mechanism of onvansertib-abiraterone synergy as well as predict patient response and archived clinical trial tissue from patients enrolled in the ongoing trial are being analyzed to confirm this hypothesis."

Mark Erlander, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Cardiff Oncology added, "The identification of a gene signature that appears to predict patient response to onvansertib-abiraterone combination therapy is encouraging, as is the finding that this signature is enriched in mCRPC patients with the known molecular basal tumor subtype. We look forward to continuing to work with our collaborators at MIT and Decipher Biosciences to validate this gene set as a predictive response biomarker. Validation of such a biomarker would be significant, as it would allow us to take a precision medicine approach to future trials by enabling the identification of patients most likely to benefit from therapy with onvansertib."

Highlights from the AACR presentation include:

* Inhibition of polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1) sensitizes CRPC cells to abiraterone, but not the ARSi enzalutamide, indicating that abiraterone and PLK1 inhibitors synergize in an AR-independent manner.

* In vitro experiments and RNA sequencing analyses indicate that abiraterone's AR-independent effects include the disruption of mitotic spindle orientation and the induction of a mitosis related gene signature.

* Data suggest that the identified mitosis related gene signature may be predictive of patient response to onvansertib-abiraterone combination therapy, a hypothesis that is being further assessed in an ongoing Phase 2 trial evaluating the all-oral regimen of onvansertib, abiraterone and prednisone in mCRPC patients.

* The identified mitosis related gene signature was found to be significantly enriched in the basal molecular subtype of prostate cancer.

The virtual poster, "The selective polo-like kinase (Plk1) inhibitor onvansertib and the antiandrogen abiraterone synergistically kill cancer cells through disruption of mitosis independently of androgen receptor signaling" by Patterson et al, is available for on-demand viewing on the AACR Annual Meeting 2021 e-poster website and is also posted on the "Scientific Presentations" section of the Cardiff Oncology website at https://cardiffoncology.com/scientific-presentations/.