Some of the biggest movers on Wall Street today are running on releasing data from clinical trials at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2017 Annual Meeting ongoing at McCormick Place in Chicago, IL.
Loxo Oncology (NASDAQ:LOXO) is getting most of the media attention this morning with its 52% surge in value to a record high on some particularly strong results. Those looking to the small cap space certainly can't look past Celsion Corp. (NASDAQ:CLSN), whose stock is soaring on a poster presentation at ASCO.
Traders are buying up shares of CLSN from near an all-time low following an update on Celsion's OVATION trial, a Phase 1b study combining GEN-1, the company's DNA-based immunotherapy, with the standard of care for the treatment of newly-diagnosed patients with advanced (stage III/IV) ovarian cancer who will undergo neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by interval debulking surgery.
Celsion reported encouraging data from the first 14 patients, for which every patient had some clinical benefit from the therapy. Two patients had a complete response, 10 had a partial response and two patients demonstrated disease stabilization, as measured by RECIST criteria.
The trial is structured as a dose-escalation study. In the five patients in the highest dose cohort, one complete response and four partial responses were documented.
The treatment was safe, with no dose-limited toxicities reported at any dosing level.
After closing Friday at $2.66, shares of CLSN rocketed ahead to as high as $4.96 in morning trading on Monday. They have since cooled off, pulling back to $4.06 at 1:15 PM ET, representing a gain of 52.6% on the day.
