Telix Pharmaceuticals has announced the dosing of the first patient in a Phase II study of TLX250-CDx, an imaging agent that targets carbonic anhydrase (CAIX) and is being investigated across a range of cancer indications. The STARBURST study will explore CAIX expression in patients with diverse solid tumours for potential diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Tumours expressing CAIX are typically hypoxic, more aggressive and feature a tumour micro-environment that can be resistant to therapy.
TLX250-CDx targets clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), which was also the target in Telix's successful Phase III ZIRCON study. The half-life of 89Zr means that imaging these tumours with TLX250-CDx will enable predictive dosimetry for therapeutic radionuclides, effectively serving as a theranostic "scouting" study for future studies harnessing therapeutic radionuclides. The open label Phase II "basket" study includes breast, cervix, colorectal, gastric, esophageal, head and neck, lung, ovarian, pancreatic and vulval cancers.