Cancer vaccine continues to show encouraging results
pharmafile | June 14, 2006 | News story | Research and Development |Â Â Â
Oxford BioMedica, the UK gene therapy specialist, has reported encouraging results from five phase II studies of TroVax, its leading cancer immunotherapy vaccine.
Results are so promising that QUASAR, a UK-based clinical trial network, has now agreed to develop a phase III trial of TroVax in approximately 3,000 patients suffering from early stage colorectal cancer.
The five studies were presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
Main points of the new phase II results were:
* Updated survival data from the two metastatic colorectal cancer trials, which showed that a third of the patients were still alive after an average follow-up time of more than two years
* Two of the phase II TroVax studies in post-surgery (adjuvant) therapy in colorectal patients for liver metastases showed that 96% of patients produced an anti-tumour immune response and 56% of patients remained disease-free after a nine-month follow-up
* Data from two renal cancer studies of TroVax in conjunction with interleukin-2 (a protein which enhances the function of the immune system by prompting T-lymphocytes to become natural 'killers' against cancer cells) showed that two of the six patients to be evaluated (i.e. 33%) partially responded to the treatment. BioMedica is now seeking to gain more data with a much larger study.
Three further small phase II studies are about to start in renal cell cancer, to evaluate TroVax in combination with interferon-a and Pfizer's Sutent (sunitnib).
Phase III of the TroVax Renal Immunotherapy Survival Trial (TRIST) is due to start this autumn.
Prof David Kerr, QUASAR's chairman and head of clinical pharmacology at Oxford University, said: "We are committed to the phase III trial of TroVax in early stage colorectal cancer. We must now secure the necessary grant funding to start this important trial and potentially provide a novel therapy for this large patient group where treatment options have evolved little in recent years."
The development of cancer vaccines is becoming a fast-growing and competitive market. A report from Arrowhead last autumn estimated the market would probably be worth around $6 billion in four years' time. Two US companies, San Francisco's Cell Genesys and Seattle-based Dendreon, both currently have prostate cancer products in phase III, while UK-based Onyvax has a prostate cancer drug in phase II.
