NOVELOS REPORTS POSITIVE RESULTS FROM PHASE I/II LUNG CANCER STUDY

Novelos Therapeutics announced positive results from a Phase I/II randomized clinical study in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Forty-four chemotherapy-naive Stage IIIB/IV NSCLC patients (late-stage lung cancer patients who have not received prior chemotherapy) were randomized to one of three groups for six months of treatment: Based on the study protocol, the intent-to-treat analysis of the best overall objective tumor response (i.e. complete or partial tumor shrinkage) showed that eleven out of sixteen (69 percent) NOV-002 treated patients in Group B demonstrated greater than 50 percent tumor shrinkage versus only five out of fifteen (33 percent) in the control group (C). Six out of thirteen (46 percent) patients in Group A demonstrated an objective response.

Further, NOV-002 treated patients better tolerated cytotoxic chemotherapy as evidenced by their ability to receive more cycles of chemotherapy compared to the control group (C). 100 percent of patients in Group B and 85 percent in Group A were able to complete four cycles of chemotherapy, while only 50 percent of control group patients (C) were able to do so. These differences were statistically significant. In addition, NOV-002 was well-tolerated in this patient population, adding to NOV-002's already extensive safety database.