ASCO highlights include GSK's pazopanib, Novartis' INC424 and Glivec, B-MS/Otsuka's Sprycel

This year's annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO), being held in Chicago, saw a plethora of new data on cancer drugs being presented by UK pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK) on pazopanib, Swiss major Novartis (NOVN: VX) on its JAK inhibitor and Glivec, and Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) and Otsuka’s (4768: JP) on Sprycel.

Results of the GSK’s PALETTE (PAzopanib ExpLorEd in SofT-Tissue Sarcoma) study demonstrated a statistically-significant improvement in the time to first occurrence of tumor progression or death (progression free survival or PFS) for study patients treated with the multi-tyrosine kinase inhibitor pazopanib, compared to placebo.

PALETTE is a randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled Phase III trial in patients with metastatic soft tissue sarcomas (excluding gastrointestinal stromal tumours and adipocytic sarcomas) and was jointly conducted by GSK and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) in collaboration with cancer centers across the world. Use of pazopanib to treat soft tissue sarcomas is investigational and subject to evaluation of benefits and risks by regulatory authorities before being made available for that use.