PHILADELPHIA, May 8 (UPI) -- Sirtex said Monday it would launch a study to test the use of its SIR-Spheres Microspheres with Xeloda for liver cancer.
Sirtex said its product is the only radioactive microspheres treatment approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat metastatic liver tumors.
The therapy will be used in a study at the Philadelphia-based Fox Chase Cancer Center and will enroll at most 28 patients with metastatic or primary liver cancer for research that will extend through December 2007.
The patients in the study will be given SIR-Spheres along with Roche's oral chemotherapy Xeloda, with investigators assessing the safety and proper dosage of Xeloda in the combination.
The company said its treatment has already tested safe with oxaliplatin and irinotecan chemotherapy.
"We also believe that combining SIR-Spheres microspheres with Xeloda chemotherapy could provide improved treatment to patients," said Sirtex Medical Director David Cade.
"However, we currently do not have adequate safety data to support the use of Xeloda with SIR-Spheres. This trial will help to provide that evidence and also will allow for the design of a subsequent larger trial that will more completely assess efficacy of this particular combination of treatment," he said.
