PRINCETON -
The mini-review summarizes findings about the use, mechanism and effectiveness of HyBryte in the treatment of CTCL with a particular emphasis on the ability of HyBryte to address the unmet medical need in patients with early-stage disease.
'With its chronic course and major impact on patient quality of life, CTCL is an orphan disease in urgent need of additional treatment options that are well-tolerated and safe over the long term,' stated
'In treating CTCL, which is a chronic cancer with no cure, long-term safety is a strong driver of treatment choice. Most current treatment options for CTCL are associated with significant safety concerns, including black-box warnings. HyBryte treatment has demonstrated strong and rapid efficacy with a very benign safety profile,' stated
About HyBryte
HyBryte (research name SGX301) is a novel, first-in-class, photodynamic therapy utilizing safe, visible light for activation. The active ingredient in HyBryte is synthetic hypericin, a potent photosensitizer that is topically applied to skin lesions that is taken up by the malignant T-cells, and then activated by visible light approximately 24 hours later. The use of visible light in the red-yellow spectrum has the advantage of penetrating more deeply into the skin (much more so than ultraviolet light) and therefore potentially treating deeper skin disease and thicker plaques and lesions. This treatment approach avoids the risk of secondary malignancies (including melanoma) inherent with the frequently employed DNA-damaging drugs and other phototherapy that are dependent on ultraviolet exposure. Combined with photoactivation, hypericin has demonstrated significant anti-proliferative effects on activated normal human lymphoid cells and inhibited growth of malignant T-cells isolated from CTCL patients.
In a published Phase 2 clinical study in CTCL, patients experienced a statistically significant (p=0.04) improvement with topical hypericin treatment whereas the placebo was ineffective. HyBryte has received orphan drug and fast track designations from the FDA, as well as orphan designation from the
In the second open-label treatment cycle (Cycle 2), all patients received HyBryte treatment of their index lesions. Evaluation of 155 patients in this cycle (110 receiving 12 weeks of HyBryte treatment and 45 receiving 6 weeks of placebo treatment followed by 6 weeks of HyBryte treatment), demonstrated that the response rate among the 12-week treatment group was 40% (p
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