XL880 is being tested in Phase II in papillary renal-cell carcinoma...Oxford BioMedica plc, of Oxford, UK, said further data from an ongoing Phase II trial of TroVax, an immunotherapy cancer product, showed the drug was well tolerated and demonstrated antitumor activity in patients with renal-cell carcinoma, with one patient showing a complete response and two patients developing a partial response

Oxford BioMedica plc, of Oxford, UK, began a pivotal Phase III trial of its cancer immunotherapy product TroVax in patients with advanced or metastatic renal cell carcinoma

Genmab A/S, of Copenhagen, Denmark, initiated an open-label Phase I/II study of HuMax-EGFr (zalutumumab) in combination with chemo-radiation as a first-line treatment for squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck

The company expects to file a final report of Phase I results with the FDA in early 2007, followed by the initiation of a Phase II trial in patients with advanced renal-cell carcinoma who have failed previous treatments

The study is expected to enroll about 26 newly diagnosed metastatic renal-cell carcinoma patients, and the primary objective will be to measure T-cell responses to treatment with the immunotherapeutic

Nexavar was approved by the FDA in December to treat patients with advanced renal-cell carcinoma

Peplin Ltd., of Brisbane, Australia, said results from a Phase IIa trial of PEP005 topical demonstrated a favorable safety profile and showed dose-dependent tumor clearance rates in patients with nodular forms of basal-cell carcinoma

The multicenter, open-label study will be conducted in up to 15 clinical sites and is designed to enroll up to 34 patients with hereditary or sporadic papillary renal cell carcinoma

The drug was approved by the FDA in December for the treatment of patients with advanced renal-cell carcinoma

Cel-Sci Corp., of Vienna, Va., reported long-term survival data from its Phase II trial in head and neck cancer patients showing that the addition of Multikine as first-line treatment prior to standard-of-care treatment resulted in 33 percent to 40 percent improvement in the median survival at 3.5 years post-surgery, compared to the results of 39 oral squamous cell carcinoma trials published in scientific literature between 1987 and 2004

Curis Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., said preliminary clinical data suggested that a topical Hedgehog antagonist studied in 34 patients with basal-cell carcinoma was generally well tolerated...to develop a topically administered Hedgehog small-molecule antagonist for the potential treatment of basal-cell carcinoma

Peplin Ltd., of Brisbane, Australia, reported positive results from its Phase IIa trial of PEP005 topical in superficial forms of basal-cell carcinoma (sBCC

The first of these studies, EPIC, is testing the use of Erbitux in metastatic colorectal cancer after failure of oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy, while the second study, designated EXTREME and sponsored by Darmstadt, Germany-based Merck KGaA, evaluates the drug as a first-line treatment for patients with recurrent and/or metastatic squamous-cell carcinoma of the head and neck