A Novel Treatment Option for Hepatocellular Carcinoma

In this episode of The OncoZine Brief, Peter Hofland, Ph.D and Sonia Portillo talk with Gisela Schwab, MD, President, Product Development and Medical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer at Excelixis. Following early work in model genetic systems, Exelixis, a genomics-based drug discovery company located in South San Francisco, CA, established a broad drug discovery and development platform that has served as the foundation for the company’s continued efforts to bring new cancer therapies to patients in need. The company discovered and developed its lead compounds, cabozantinib and cobimetinib, and advanced them into clinical development before entering into partnerships with leading biopharmaceutical companies in an effort to bring these medicines to patients globally. Hofland and Portillo ask Schwab about hepatocellular carcinoma or HCC, the most common, primary malignancy of the liver and the fifth most common cancer in men, worldwide, and seventh among women, with the highest incidence in Asian and developing countries. They talk about the disease, diagnoses and treatment. And they talk about Exelixis' global phase III Celestial trial with cabozantinib (Cabometyx®) , a novel cancer agent which met its primary endpoint of overall survival (OS), and providing a clinically meaningful improvement in median OS compared to placebo in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. In their concluding commentary Hofland and Portillo talk about the process of cancer staging.