TRACON Pharmaceuticals announced that positive initial clinical data from its ongoing Phase 1b/2 study of TRC105 and Nexavar® (sorafenib) in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) were presented in a poster presentation at the 2018 ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium in San Francisco, California. Initial data from the ongoing open-label, non-randomized study were presented by Dr. Kanwal Raghav from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center: Partial responses by RECIST 1.1 occurred in 2 of 8 (25%) evaluable patients and a reduction of 50% or greater in alpha fetoprotein (AFP) concentration occurred in 3 of 8 (38%) evaluable patients. Reduction in AFP, a tumor marker expressed in patients with HCC, in early treatment may help identify a favorable response to treatment and was observed in both cases of partial response. Hybrid dosing consisting of four weekly doses of TRC105 at 10 mg/kg followed by every other week dosing at 15 mg/kg thereafter was tolerable when given with the standard Nexavar dose of 400 mg twice daily. Adverse events typical of each drug did not increase in frequency or severity when the drugs were administered concurrently. The trial is ongoing, with the completion of the enrollment of approximately 33 patients expected by the end of 2018.