TYPE: International Clinical Trial
STATUS: In Follow Up
GCF CONTRIBUTION: $80,000

GCF donors are funding access to the ASCEND clinical trial for 19 pancreatic cancer patients across 3 sites in the Auckland, Waikato, and Dunedin regions.

ASCEND is a randomised, double-blinded phase II study of gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel with CEND-1 or placebo in patients with untreated metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

Patients with advanced pancreatic cancer have poor survival. Limited penetration of anti-cancer drugs to cancer cells is one of the reasons that pancreas cancer is less sensitive to chemotherapy. CEND-1 is a new type of drug that helps small molecules, like chemotherapy drugs, get from the bloodstream into cancer cells, without increasing the amount of chemotherapy drug that is taken up by normal cells.

Even with access to current treatments, there is a huge room for improvement given that the average survival for this group of patients is less than 12 months. To improve outcomes for patients with newly diagnosed advanced pancreas cancer, the Australian Gastro-Intestinal Trials Group (AGITG) has developed and sponsored the ASCEND clinical trial.

The ASCEND clinical trial is investigating whether adding CEND-1 to chemotherapy will improve survival of people with pancreatic cancer by increasing the efficacy of the chemotherapy.

For participating patients in New Zealand, this trial will have significant dual benefits. Thanks to the support of CEND Therapeutics, every one of the 19 New Zealanders who access this trial will be given the international standard of care treatment gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel, a treatment option that is not funded in New Zealand. In addition, two-thirds of the patients will receive CEND-1 as part of the investigation into whether this new agent improves the delivery of their chemotherapy treatment.

April 2025 UpdateWithout GCF support this international trial would not have been able to open sites in New Zealand. Once the site were established, additional fundings sources were secured, so the full amount of GCF funds were not consumed. These funds will be redirected to future research projects.