CALGARY,
March 5, 2015 /CNW/ - Oncolytics
Biotech® Inc. ("Oncolytics") (TSX:ONC) (NASDAQ:ONCY)
today announced that an oral presentation by the Company's research
collaborators in Professor Kevin
Harrington's lab at the Institute for Cancer Research,
titled "Synergistic Combination of Oncolytic Reovirus Type 3
(Dearing) and Radiotherapy in Melanoma is Mediated Through Enhanced
Viral Replication and Mitochondrial Apoptotic Signaling," was made
at the Irish Association for Cancer Research (IACR) Conference held
in Limerick, Ireland.
"Malignant melanoma is typically resistant to
traditional chemotherapeutic and radiotherapy regimens," said Dr.
Matt Coffey Chief Operating Officer
of Oncolytics. "This preclinical research highlights the
synergistic role REOLYSIN® could play in making
traditional treatments, such as radiotherapy, more effective."
The Company's research collaborators presented
data from a variety of melanoma models. They concluded that the
combination of REOLYSIN® and radiation therapy enhances
cytotoxicity in those cell lines by increasing programmed cancer
cell death, and that radiation therapy supports increased reovirus
replication and suppresses the host cell's anti-viral defenses.
This builds on a recent publication by Professor
Harrington's group that demonstrated that REOLYSIN®
could act synergistically in combination with a new class of
targeted agents to treat skin cancers with a specific mutation. The
work, titled "BRAF- and MEK-Targeted Small Molecule Inhibitors
Exert Enhanced Antimelanoma Effects in Combination with Oncolytic
Reovirus Through ER Stress," was published recently in the online
version of Molecular Therapy. The publication outlined
how the combination of REOLYSIN® and BRAF inhibitors
improved survival in mouse models compared to either agent alone.
This adds to the body of research on how REOLYSIN® can
act synergistically with targeted agents on tumours with mutations
along the Ras-signaling pathway.
A copy of the IACR presentation, when available,
will be found on the Oncolytics website at:
http://www.oncolyticsbiotech.com/for-investors/presentations.
About Oncolytics Biotech
Inc.
Oncolytics is a Calgary-based biotechnology company focused on
the development of oncolytic viruses as potential cancer
therapeutics. Oncolytics' clinical program includes a variety
of later-stage, randomized human trials in various indications
using REOLYSIN®, its proprietary formulation of the
human reovirus. For further information about Oncolytics, please
visit: www.oncolyticsbiotech.com.
This press release contains forward-looking
statements, within the meaning of Section 27A of the
Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking
statements, including the Company's expectations related to
preclinical work with radiotherapy, small molecule inhibitors and
REOLYSIN® in melanoma, future trials in this indication,
and the Company's belief as to the potential of
REOLYSIN® as a cancer therapeutic, involve known and
unknown risks and uncertainties, which could cause the Company's
actual results to differ materially from those in the
forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include,
among others, the availability of funds and resources to pursue
research and development projects, the efficacy of
REOLYSIN® as a cancer treatment, the tolerability
of REOLYSIN® outside a controlled test, the success and
timely completion of clinical studies and trials, the Company's
ability to successfully commercialize REOLYSIN®,
uncertainties related to the research, development and
manufacturing of pharmaceuticals, changes in technology, general
changes to the economic environment and uncertainties related to
the regulatory process. Investors should consult the Company's
quarterly and annual filings with the Canadian and U.S. securities
commissions for additional information on risks and uncertainties
relating to the forward-looking statements. Investors should
consider statements that include the words "believes", "expects",
"anticipates", "intends", "estimates", "plans", "projects",
"should", or other expressions that are predictions of or indicate
future events or trends, to be uncertain and forward-looking.
Investors are cautioned against placing undue reliance on
forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake to
update these forward-looking statements, except as required by
applicable laws.
SOURCE Oncolytics Biotech Inc.