Gothenburg, Sweden, 2014-05-15 07:43 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Immunicum announces that the abstract on INTUVAX clinical data has been released for ASCO 2014
- Being accepted to present at the most prestigious cancer conference in the world gives us a great opportunity to showcase Immunicum’s technology and shows the level of scientific interest our clinical data has generated, says Immunicum’s CEO, Jamal El-Mosleh.
Below is the abstract (No. 3085), with data as of January 2014, that is now available on ASCO's website (abstracts.asco.org).
Intratumoral vaccination with activated allogeneic dendritic cells in patients with recently diagnosed metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC)
Anna Laurell, Maria Lönnemark, Einar Brekkan, Lars Adamson, Bengt Andersson, Anders Magnusson, AnnaCarin Wallgren, Rolf Kiessling and Alex Karlsson-Parra
Background: Accumulating data indicate that the efficient induction of antigen-specific CTLs characterizing viral infections is caused by cross-priming where initially infected DCs produce an unique set of inflammatory factors that recruit and activate non-infected ”bystander” DCs. Accordingly, we have developed a cellular adjuvant consisting of pre-activated (by a novel activation cocktail) DCs producing high levels of DC-recruiting and DC-activating factors in a sustained fashion. This concept doesn´t require MHC-compatibility between injected cells and the patient and therefore introduces the possibility of using pre-produced and freeze-stored DCs from healthy blood donors as an ”off-the-shelf” vaccine adjuvant.
Methods: 12 patients with recently diagnosed mRCC, 7 with intermediate prognosis (Heng criteria) and 5 with poor prognosis (PP), where included in a clinical phase I/II study. Vaccine cells (50 doses) were produced from a leukapheresis-product from one healthy blood donor and subsequently deep-frozen. 5-20 x 10(6) vaccine cells were injected intratumorally twice with 2 weeks interval before nephrectomy.
Results: No vaccine-related severe adverse events were observed. 9 out of 11 evaluated patients exhibited an increase in circulating tumor-specific lymphocytes (IFN-G ELISPOT) after vaccination. A massive infiltration of CD8+ T cells was found in 5 out of 12 removed kidney tumors which, to the best of our knowledge, is the most intensive and general intratumoral infiltration of CD8+ T cells ever reported in any human solid tumor. Median overall survival (mOS) in the PP-group is still not reached but has already passed (without addition of targeted therapy) the expected mOS in PP-patients on targeted therapy (9.8 vs 7.8 mo). 40% of the patients in the PP-group have to date (Jan 2014) survived for more than 17 months (without addition of targeted therapy) compared to an expected 17 months-survival of 25% in PP patient groups on targeted therapy.
Conclusions: Our findings indicate that intratumoral injection of pre-activated allogeneic DCs is safe and induce a systemic CTL-mediated anti-tumor response that may prolong survival in mRCC-patients.
An update on survival data, in addition to potential information regarding effect on tumor shrinkage, is expected to be provided at the ASCO-conference on June 1st, with a subsequent press release on June 2nd making the updated data publicly available.
For further information, please contact:
Jamal El-Mosleh, CEO of Immunicum, +4631-415052,
jamal.el-mosleh@immunicum.com
Redeye AB is chosen as the Company’s Certified Adviser.
Tel: +468-545 013 31. www.redeye.se.
About Immunicum AB (publ):
Immunicum AB (publ) develops cancer immunotherapies. Its two main groups of therapeutic cancer vaccines, SUBCUVAX® and INTUVAX®, and the method of expansion of tumor-specific T-cells (CD70) is based on the Nobel prize awarded discovery of the dendritic cell and its central role in the activation of the specific immune response. Since the raw material consists of allogeneic dendritic cells, Immunicum’s products can be produced in large scale. The vaccines are now undergoing clinical trials in renal cell carcinoma and hepatocellular carcinoma.