DelMar Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced that it has entered into a collaboration with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (MD Anderson) to accelerate the clinical development of DelMar's lead anti-cancer candidate, VAL-083, for the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most common and deadly form of brain cancer. As part of the collaboration, MD Anderson will initiate a new Phase II clinical study with VAL-083 in patients with GBM at first recurrence/progression, prior to Avastin™ (bevacizumab) exposure. Patients eligible for the study will have recurrent GBM characterized by a high expression of MGMT, the DNA repair enzyme implicated in drug-resistance and poor patient outcomes following current front-line chemotherapy.

MGMT promoter methylation status will be used as a validated biomarker for enrollment and tumors must exhibit an unmethylated MGMT promoter for patients to be eligible for the trial. VAL-083 is a first-in-class small molecule chemotherapy that readily crosses the blood brain barrier. DelMar's research has demonstrated that VAL-083's anti-cancer mechanism is active independent of tumor MGMT status.

Approximately 2/3 of GBM patients have tumors with an unmethylated MGMT promoter, which is correlated with resistance to currently available chemotherapy and poor patient outcomes. DelMar also plans to continue ongoing pre-clinical research related to VAL-083's unique mechanism of action with researchers at MD Anderson.