Racura Oncology (ASX:RAC) said the Bellberry human research ethics committee approved the HARNESS-1 lung cancer clinical trial, for Australian private hospital sites and eligible public hospital sites outside Victoria, allowing for additional clinical trial sites to be activated, according to a Friday Australian bourse filing.

The study is evaluating the safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics of RC220, the firm's proprietary formulation of bisantrene, in combination with osimertinib in patients with non-small cell lung cancer harboring activating epidermal growth factor receptor mutations. Osimertinib is the current standard of care treatment for non-small cell lung cancer with defined epidermal growth factor receptor mutations.

The human research ethics committee for the St Vincents Hospital in Melbourne had earlier approved the lead clinical trial site, Monash Health. The hospital committee also approved the inclusion of Austin Health in Victoria.