Tag: combination therapy
Company News: New Clinical Data Demonstrate Strong Synergy between Cancer Vaccine ISA101 and Chemotherapy
– Data presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2014
– Potential new treatment being developed for patients with late-stage cervical cancer
ISA Pharmaceuticals B.V., a clinical-stage immunotherapy company focusing on rationally designed therapeutic vaccines against cancer and persistent viral infections, has announced new clinical data on its lead product candidate ISA101. ISA101 is a therapeutic cancer vaccine for the treatment of high-risk, HPV16-induced diseases, such as cervical cancer. The data were presented by principal investigator Prof. Sjoerd van der Burg, Ph.D., at this year’s American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting in San Diego.
The data demonstrate strong synergy between ISA101 and chemotherapy, offering potential new treatment options for cervical cancer patients scheduled to receive standard chemotherapy with carboplatin / paclitaxel.
Prof. van der Burg and his group evaluated the immunological and clinical responses of patients with advanced cervical carcinoma in a Phase I combination trial. In this pilot trial, patients received ISA101 in combination with standard chemotherapy cycles (carboplatin / paclitaxel). Almost all patients showed a strong immune response to the ISA101 vaccine. Comprehensive immune monitoring confirmed the beneficial effect of myeloid suppressor cell depletion associated with a robust induction of HPV16-specific T-cell responses that were sustained throughout several cycles of chemotherapy.
The observation that depletion of myeloid suppressor cells by a carboplatin/paclitaxel chemotherapy regimen enhances the immune response to ISA101 is in line with prior observations that tumors promote immune tolerance starting early in the disease and that chemotherapy can restore immune competence in cancer patients.
Based on these results ISA has initiated a phase I/II study (CervISA) in October last year testing ISA101 in combination with carboplatin, paclitaxel and pegylated interferon alpha in women with advanced or recurrent cervical cancer.
The presentation titled “Synergistic effects of properly timed HPV16 SLP vaccination during standard carboplatin-paclitaxel chemotherapy in animals and patients with metastatic cervical carcinoma“ was given at the Minisymposium MS.IM02.01 “Immune-based Therapies: Responses, Biomarkers, and Mechanisms” on Monday, April 07, 2014, at 3:20 PM in Room 6CF at the San Diego Convention Center.
The abstract # 2938 is available at the AACR website www.aacr.org.
Company News: MediGene Presents Overall Survival Data from a Phase II Trial of EndoTAG®-1 in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC)
– Positive efficacy trend of EndoTAG®-1/Paclitaxel combination therapy confirmed
– Subgroup analysis reveals encouraging overall survival data with EndoTAG®-1 plus paclitaxel combination therapy
MediGene AG today announced median overall survival data from its phase II trial of EndoTAG®-1 for the treatment of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), which was presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium in San Antonio, USA. The secondary endpoint data confirm the positive efficacy trend of EndoTAG®-1 in combination therapy with standard weekly paclitaxel, which was previously reported by the primary endpoint data (progression-free survival rate at 16 weeks). Furthermore, an additional analysis of a subgroup of patients not predefined in the study protocol (119 of 140 patients: ECOG 0/1, first-line therapy for advanced cancer) showed encouraging overall survival data with EndoTAG®-1/paclitaxel combination therapy. The data were presented by Prof. Dr. Ahmad Awada, principal investigator of this trial and Head of the Medical Oncology Clinic at Jules Bordet Institute in Brussels, Belgium.
140 patients diagnosed with TNBC participated in the phase II clinical trial. Patients were randomized to three groups and received either EndoTAG®-1 in combination with weekly paclitaxel (55 patients) or EndoTAG®-1 monotherapy (57 patients). The third group (28 patients) only received weekly paclitaxel. The patients treated with combination therapy received 22 mg/m2 EndoTAG®-1 plus 70 mg/m2 paclitaxel once per week. EndoTAG®-1 monotherapy was administered twice per week, in a dosage of 44 mg/m2 per treatment. The paclitaxel monotherapy consisted of a once weekly 90 mg/m2 dose. The clinical trial was conducted in more than 30 centers in several European countries and in India. The study was not powered for intergroup comparisons.
Median overall survival time (as at reference date “visit week 41” of the last patient treated) for those 133 patients with TNBC status confirmed by central lab was 13.0 months in the EndoTAG®-1/paclitaxel combination therapy arm (51 patients), 11.9 months in the EndoTAG®-1 monotherapy arm (57 patients), and 10.1 months in the paclitaxel monotherapy arm (25 patients). Further data analysis of this group was done for those 124 patients treated per protocol. Median overall survival in this group was 15.1 months in the EndoTAG®-1 combination therapy arm (48 patients), 12.5 months in the EndoTAG®-1 monotherapy arm (52 patients), and 8.9 months in the paclitaxel monotherapy arm (24 patients).
Additionally, MediGene analyzed a subgroup of patients that was not predefined in the study protocol. This included patients with centrally confirmed TNBC status, ECOG performance status of 0/1 at the start of the clinical trial and who received first-line treatment after tumor relapse (119 patients). Median overall survival in this group was 17.8 months in the EndoTAG®-1 combination therapy arm (45 patients), 11.7 months in the EndoTAG®-1 monotherapy arm (50 patients), and 10.1 months in the paclitaxel monotherapy arm (24 patients).
Data regarding the primary endpoint of the trial (progression-free survival rate at week 16), the secondary endpoints progression-free survival rate, clinical benefit rate, and best overall response, as well as safety and tolerability of EndoTAG®-1 have previously been published and are available at http://www.medigene.de/presse_en/endotagTNBC.