Synta says drug worked in some melanoma patients

* Halted trial fails to meet goal

* Progression-free survival improves for subgroup

* Mature survival data expected end 2009 or early 2010

ORLANDO, Fla., May 30 (Reuters) - Synta Pharmaceuticals Corp (SNTA.O: Quote, Profile, Research), which in February halted trials of an experimental cancer drug after it was associated with a higher death rate, on Saturday said the trial did show that a subgroup of skin cancer patients benefited from the drug.

Preliminary results of the trial found that 170 patients treated with a combination of the drug, elesclomol, and chemotherapy had died as of April, compared with 192 patient deaths in the chemotherapy alone group.

The trial enrolled 651 patients with melanoma, a deadly form of skin cancer. As of April, 621 patients had been evaluated.

For patients with normal levels of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), there were 99 deaths in the treatment group, compared with 124 in the chemotherapy alone group, according to Synta.

The improvement in the amount of time these patients, who accounted for about two-thirds of the trial total, survived without their cancer worsening was statistically significant, the company said.

"The preliminary safety analysis shows that both the combination and control arms were well tolerated with generally comparable adverse event profiles. The imbalance in deaths observed between the two arms to date cannot be explained by organ-specific toxicities attributable to elesclomol," Dr. Steven O'Day, director of the melanoma program at the Angeles Clinic and Research Institute and the study's investigator, said in a statement.