Sirtex Medical (ASX:SRX) said yesterday that the National Comprehensive Cancer Network has recommended the company’s radioactive microspheres in its Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology for colon cancer and rectal cancer. The NCCN panel uniformly agreed that selective internal radiation therapy with yttrium-90 microspheres is an option for patients with metastatic, chemotherapy resistant colorectal cancer.
The recommendation was supported by the More retrospective analysis study, which included 600 patients with colorectal cancer. The data suggested that selective internal radiation therapy using Y-90 microspheres is safe and effective in patients who have failed multiple lines of chemotherapy.
Woburn, Mass.-based Sirtex touted its Y-90 resin spheres as the 1st microspheres with premarket approval from the FDA for coloretal cancer that has metastasized to the liver. Selective internal radiation therapy targets high doses of radiation directly to liver tumors using tens of millions of radioactive Y-90 coated resin particles. The microspheres are injected into the hepatic artery via a catheter through the femoral artery. The Y-90 particles become trapped in capillaries surrounding the liver tumors and deliver a high dose of targeted, short-range radiation.
“The NCCN Guidelines aim to assist medical teams, patients and their families in making informed treatment-related decisions with the goal of optimal cancer care,” CEO Kevin Richardson said in prepared remarks. “The 2A designation represents a very important milestone for SIR-Spheres resin microspheres and provides further validation for the role of our medical device as an important treatment option for unresectable, liver dominant metastatic colorectal cancer. We also have positive signals in the 1st-line setting through the results to date of the pivotal Sirflox study and eagerly anticipate the overall survival results in more than 1,100 patients from the Sirflox, Foxfire and Foxfire Global studies which we expect to be available in the first half of 2017.”
“Clinical research has shown that SIRT brings patients with colorectal liver metastases improved and prolonged quality of life,” More study lead investigator Dr. Andrew Kennedy explained. “We look forward to expanding access to this outpatient procedure, which has demonstrated minimal side effects, to improve outcomes for this population of patients and advance the standard of care.”
