Can-Fite reports final Phase IIa pancreatic cancer data for namodenoson at ESMO 2026
The company said the trial met its safety endpoint, with one second-line patient reaching 16.39 months progression-free and over 20.7 months overall survival.
Can-Fite BioPharma Ltd. announced on October 26, 2026 the presentation of final data from its Phase IIa clinical study of namodenoson in advanced pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2026 in Madrid, Spain.1
The study achieved its primary safety endpoint, demonstrating that oral namodenoson was well tolerated in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer who had received prior systemic therapies.1 The single-center, open-label study enrolled 20 patients who received namodenoson at 25 mg twice daily, with fourteen patients treated in the third-line setting, three in the second-line setting, and three in the fourth-line setting.1
On safety, only five adverse events in three patients were considered related or possibly related to namodenoson, all mild to moderate Grade 1-2, with none requiring dose modification, treatment interruption, or discontinuation, and no Grade ≥3 treatment-related adverse events or treatment-related serious adverse events reported.1
In exploratory analyses, eight third-line patients who survived beyond two months showed a median overall survival of 6.28 months and median progression-free survival of 2.27 months.1 Separately, one second-line patient achieved progression-free survival of 16.39 months and overall survival of 20.7 months, as of the September 23, 2026 data cutoff.1 The company noted that the third-line analysis focused on patients surviving beyond two months, and because the subgroup was selected based on survival with no randomized comparator, the findings are hypothesis-generating and support evaluation in a larger randomized study.1
Namodenoson is described as an orally administered, selective agonist of the A₃ adenosine receptor, which is highly expressed in tumor and inflammatory cells.1 Beyond pancreatic cancer, the drug is currently being evaluated in a pivotal Phase 3 trial for advanced liver cancer and is enrolling patients in a Phase 2b trial for Metabolic Dysfunction-associated Steatohepatitis (MASH).1
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