Benzinga | Jun 30, 2021 04:02PM EDT

Deciphera Pharma Reports First Patient Treated In Phase 1 Study Of DCC-3116 In Patients With Advanced, Metastatic Tumors With Mutant RAS, RAF Gene

Deciphera Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCPH), a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company developing innovative medicines to improve the lives of people with cancer, today announced dose administration for the first patient in the Phase 1, multicenter, open-label, first-in-human study of DCC-3116. DCC-3116 is an investigational ULK kinase inhibitor designed to inhibit autophagy and is being studied as a single agent and in combination with trametinib, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved MEK inhibitor, in patients with advanced or metastatic tumors with a mutant RAS or RAF gene.

"Approximately one third of all cancers, including a high percentage of pancreatic, lung, colorectal, and melanoma cancers, are driven by mutations in RAS or RAF genes, representing what we believe to be one of the largest unmet medical needs in oncology," said Matthew L. Sherman, MD, Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Deciphera Pharmaceuticals. "DCC-3116, a first-in-class, highly selective switch-control ULK kinase inhibitor, is designed to suppress autophagy and may offer a novel approach to targeting a broad array of cancers. We look forward to advancing our fourth active clinical development program generated from our switch-control kinase inhibitor platform and further evaluating the role of ULK kinase inhibition and its potential to represent a new treatment paradigm for cancers caused by RAS or RAF mutations."

Autophagy, a catabolic process in which cells recycle components to generate energy, is often upregulated in cancer cells when cells are stressed or damaged due to anti-cancer treatments. The ULK kinase initiates the autophagy pathway and provides a potential targeted approach to selectively inhibiting autophagy in cancers caused by RAS or RAF mutations. In preclinical studies, DCC-3116 was observed to potently and durably inhibit autophagy in RAS and RAF mutant cancer cell lines through the inhibition of ULK kinase. In addition, in preclinical studies, DCC-3116 also blocked the increase in autophagy induced by inhibitors of the MAPK pathway as a resistance mechanism. The Company's in vitro and in vivo studies have demonstrated that DCC-3116 in combination with inhibitors of the MAPK pathway may block the growth of cancers caused by RAS or RAF mutations.

The clinical development plan for DCC-3116 will focus on documented RAS and RAF cancer mutations, which utilize autophagy for tumor growth and survival. The Phase 1, multicenter, open-label, first-in-human study will evaluate DCC-3116 as a single agent and in combination with trametinib, an FDA-approved MEK inhibitor, in patients with advanced or metastatic tumors with a mutant RAS or RAF gene. Assuming positive results in the dose escalation phase, combination expansion cohorts are currently planned in patients with advanced or metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) with KRAS or BRAF mutations, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with KRAS, NRAS, or BRAF mutations, colorectal cancer (CRC) with KRAS, NRAS, or BRAF mutations, and melanoma with NRAS or BRAF mutations. Combination expansion cohorts are planned to evaluate DCC-3116 in combination with trametinib.