INDIANAPOLIS, May 31 (UPI) -- Eli Lilly said Wednesday it has launched a phase 3 trial of enzastaurin in patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
"Our objective with enzastaurin is to develop an agent with the ability to keep NHL patients in remission," said Richard Gaynor, Lilly's vice president of cancer research and global oncology platform leader.
"Early clinical studies of enzastaurin in NHL have been promising and we are excited about continuing our investigation in this trial."
In the trial, which is known as Preventing Relapse in Lymphoma Using Daily Enzastaurin, or PRELUDE, 459 patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma who have achieved remission following first-line therapy will be given either enzastaurin or placebo for up to three years.
The primary endpoint is disease-free survival, and investigators also will be looking for biomarkers that could help correlate patient response to clinical trial outcome.
