Cellceutix Hits Major Milestone in Company History; Dosing Underway for New Cancer Drug at Leading Hospitals

Kevetrin is First-in-Class of Novel Chemistry to Reach Clinical Stage

Cellceutix Corporation (OTCBB: CTIX) (the “Company”), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering small molecule drugs to treat unmet medical conditions, including drug-resistant cancers and autoimmune diseases, is pleased to report that dosing of patients is now being conducted in clinical trials with Kevetrin(TM), the Company’s novel anti-cancer drug candidate, at Harvard University’s Dana Farber Cancer Center and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Read More

The fight against cancer is an ongoing evolution with new technologies, procedures and compounds showing potent anti-tumor activities as stand-alone treatments or working in conjunction with traditional therapies to increase survival rates. Pioneering efforts of companies like Immunocellar Therapeutics Ltd. (NYSE MKT: IMUC), Cellceutix Corporation (OTCBB: CTIX) and IsoRay Inc. (NYSE MKT: ISR) are advancing cancer research and providing additional hope for cancer sufferers. Read More

Lpath, Inc. announced today that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted it another patent protecting its intellectual property relating to Lipodomics; bringing the Company’s total to 22. The new patent also represents the sixth patent in as many months for LPath. Read the full press release and view a LPTH stock quote.

An article yesterday evening on Reuters detailed results from a recently released ovarian cancer study published on the Journal of Clinical Oncology website. The study by the Australian Ovarian Cancer Study Group followed 1,463 Australian ovarian cancer patients and was conducted “to determine if time to diagnosis is associated with stage of disease at diagnosis or survival among women with symptomatic ovarian cancer.”  Sadly, the conclusion that was reached was not positive; suggesting that “once ovarian cancer is symptomatic, reducing the time to diagnosis would not greatly alter stage of disease at diagnosis or survival.”

The results of this particular study are somewhat alarming as the common perception of treating cancer is to “catch it early” in order increase survival time.  According to the Reuters article,

“Women whose cancer was picked up before symptoms started survived longer than those who had symptoms. For example, in all women with late-stage cancer, those without symptoms lived an average of 4 years after their diagnosis, compared to 3 years in women with symptoms.

But among those who did have invasive, symptomatic cancer, survival did not depend on how soon they saw their doctor.”

Christina Nagle, the study’s lead author from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research in Australia, did importantly note that these results “do not mean that women who have persistent symptoms that might be due to ovarian cancer should not seek immediate medical attention.”

The facts remain that approximately 22,000 new cases of ovarian cancer were diagnosed in 2010 (according to the National Cancer Institute) and that the majority of these women will die as a result of the cancer within five years.

Joining in the fight to extend the lives of ovarian cancer patients, Prima BioMed Ltd. (ASX:PRR) is developing Cvac™, a cancer vaccine approach which stimulates the patient’s own immune system to target and destroy tumors.  Prima is currently researching Cvac™ in Phase II clinical trials with a focus on using dendritic cells to fight ovarian cancer strains. The tumor antigen being targeted by Prima is called mucin-1, a molecule expressed by a variety of tumors including breast, ovarian, prostate, lung and colon cancers.  Prima’s third trial is ongoing in the US and Australia and is predicted to complete enrollment by Q3 2011. A pivotal study is planned to commence enrollment in Q3 2011, initially recruiting in Europe and subsequently in the US and Australia.