Professor Anthony Chalmers to co-lead new arm of international glioblastoma trial
Published: 13 May 2025
Professor Anthony Chalmers, Chair of Clinical Oncology at the School of Cancer Sciences, will co-lead the new arm of GBM AGILE, an international trial for patients with glioblastoma
Professor Anthony Chalmers, Chair of Clinical Oncology at the School of Cancer Sciences, will co-lead the new arm of GBM AGILE, an international trial for patients with glioblastoma.
Focused on AstraZeneca’s new drug AZD1390, which Professor Chalmers helped to develop, the latest arm will assess the effectiveness of AZD1390 in the treatment of adult patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma.
GBM AGILE, is a phase 2/3 adaptive platform trial for patients with glioblastoma, and the world’s first global adaptive platform trial for this aggressive disease. AstraZeneca’s AZD1390 enters the GBM AGILE trial as the 7th investigational arm. Since launching in 2019, the GBM AGILE trial has evaluated multiple therapies and has screened over 2,300 patients at trial locations in six countries, not currently including the UK.
Glioblastoma is the most aggressive and common form of primary brain cancer. However, despite this, treatment options and patient outcomes have seen little progress over the past several decades.
AZD1390 is a brain penetrant ataxia telangiectasia mutant (ATM) kinase inhibitor that blocks ATM-dependent signalling and repair of DNA double strand breaks (DSBs) in the genome. Preclinically, AZD1390 exhibits activity in combination with agents such as radiation therapy that induce DSBs. AZD1390 has also been shown to achieve clinically relevant concentrations in resected glioblastoma tissue and suppress the ability of tumour cells to repair the DNA damage that is induced by radiation.
Additionally, data from a Phase I trial of AZD1390 with radiotherapy showed a manageable toxicity profile and preliminary efficacy for patients with recurrent glioblastoma and was shared in an oral presentation at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2024.
GBM AGILE is a seamless phase 2/3 trial allowing multiple therapies or combinations of therapies from different pharmaceutical companies to be evaluated simultaneously against a common control arm. With its innovative design and efficient operational infrastructure, data from GBM AGILE can potentially be used as the foundation for new drugs to be authorised widely for patients.
Professor Anthony Chalmers and Dr. Patrick Wen, Director, Centre for Neuro-Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, are serving as arm Principal Investigators for AZD1390’s evaluation in GBM AGILE. Dr. Timothy Cloughesy, Director, Neuro-Oncology Program and Distinguished Professor of Neurology at the University of California, Los Angeles, is the Global Principal Investigator for the overall study.
Professor Anthony Chalmers said: “Glioblastoma is an invariably fatal cancer with few effective treatment options. There is an urgent need for better treatment options.
“We are excited to evaluate AZD1390 in GBM AGILE based on encouraging data from previous studies and the extensive evidence that AZD1390 can increase the effectiveness of radiation therapy. This investigational drug has clear potential to improve outcomes for glioblastoma patients.”
Dr. Patrick Wen said: “GBM AGILE is designed to rapidly identify and confirm effective therapies for patients with glioblastoma through response adaptive randomization. With the addition of AZD1390 to GBM AGILE, a global clinical trial, we are able to offer GBM patients access to the latest and most promising investigational therapies.”
Dr. Meredith Buxton, CEO and President of The Global Coalition for Adaptive Research (GCAR), said: “At GCAR, we're dedicated to accelerating the development of critically needed therapies for patients facing rare and deadly diseases like glioblastoma.
“We believe master protocols and adaptive platform trials are a powerful way to expedite that progress. We're excited to collaborate with AstraZeneca and look forward to rapidly advancing the development of AZD1390 in GBM AGILE to help address the urgent need for more effective glioblastoma therapies.”
Enquiries: ali.howard@glasgow.ac.uk or elizabeth.mcmeekin@glasgow.ac.uk
First published: 13 May 2025