Phase I of SGM-101 in Patients With Cancer of the Colon, Rectum or Pancreas

Surgery is the most important therapy for patients with cancer of the colon, rectum or pancreas. Complete resection, which is a crucial factor in the prognosis of a patient, is challenging as surgeons have to rely on visual appearance and palpation to discriminate between tumor and normal tissue. Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is a tumor-specific marker that is highly expressed in a number of tumors of epithelial origin (such as colorectal carcinoma and pancreas carcinoma) while it is minimally expressed in normal adult tissues. The compound that will be studied in this research project is SGM-101, a CEA-specific chimeric antibody conjugated with a near-infrared (NIR) emitting moiety. The hypothesis is that, following preoperative iv administration of SGM-101 in patients with carcinoma of the colon, rectum or pancreas, SGM-101 will bind to CEA expressing cancer cells and these cells can then be visualized with a NIR fluorescence imaging system, thereby increasing the chance of radical resection.