UCN-01 Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co

Kyowa Hakko Kogyo is developing UCN-01, a selective but non-specific inhibitor of kinases with good activity against protein kinase C (PKC) and the cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs). This hydroxylated derivative of staurosporine has potential for the treatmentfor cancer [154087], [311028], and may be useful in the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia [312089]. It is in phase I clinical trials [321641], [326004], [326256]. At the 11th NCI-EORTC-AACR Symposium (Amsterdam, November 2000), a presentation was made on UCN-01. In the initial clinical trial, in which UCN-01 was administered by continuous infusion for 72 h, a prolonged half-life of 600 h was observed. The MTD was 42.5 mg/m2/day x 3. One patient with refractory melanoma achieved a partial response, another patient with refractory anaplastic large cell lymphoma had no evaluable diseasefor more than three years [391376].