Immunovaccine Presents New Cancer Vaccine Data at AACR

Immunovaccine, a clinical stage vaccine company, presented positive data from clinical and preclinical vaccine studies, including DPX-Survivac, at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 2014 Annual Meeting. In a poster presentation, Immunovaccine highlighted results demonstrating that metronomic cyclophosphamide (mCPA), an immune modulating agent, improved the immunogenicity of DepoVax-based vaccines in preclinical cancer models consistent with previously reported Phase I data showing a similar enhancement of DPX-Survivac in patients. The animal studies demonstrated the combination therapy’s ability to eliminate advanced tumors that could not be treated with vaccine or mCPA alone. Tumors exposed to the combination therapy specifically exhibited an increase in T cell activation markers, suggesting increased immune-mediated anti-tumor activity at the tumor site with the vaccine/mCPAtherapy and further supporting the use of the combination therapy in clinical trials.

The addition of anti-PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor to the DepoVax vaccine/mCPA combination resulted in increased anti-tumor activity,which allowed the treatment of more advanced tumors. The effective tumor regressions that were observed could not be achieved without the use of vaccine or the use of anti-PD-1.

A second poster presentation related to DPX-Survivac will also be made during the AACR conference by an Immunovaccine collaborator, Caprion’s ImmuneCarta business unit. This presentation will detail immune response results from Immunovaccine’s Phase I study of DPX-Survivac in ovarian cancer patients. Findings demonstrated that treatment with DPX-Survivac induced durable target T cell responses, with these responses more robust when DPX-Survivac was combined with cyclophosphamide as an immune modulator. These results are consistent with the preclinical study results presented at AACR and provide further support for the potential for combining DPX-Survivac with complementary immune modulators and immunotherapies.

Immunovaccine expects a large randomized Phase II trial of DPX-Survivac to be initiated in 2014 in ovarian cancer. The 250 patient trial will be sponsored and conducted by Canada’s NCIC Clinical Trials Group. Additionally, researchers at the University of Rome will be initiating a Phase l/II trial of DPX-Survivac in glioblastoma (brain cancer) with the first patient receiving the vaccine in the first half of 2014.

Source: Immunovaccine