A new cancer vaccine that stimulates the immune system to target one of the most common cancer driving changes has shown early early results in patients with pancreatic and colorectal cancer, two of the most difficult to treat malignant tumors, according to a study partly carried out by researchers in the complete UCLA Health Jonsson Cancer.
The results, published in Nature MedicineShow that the vaccine, called ELI-002 2P, can trigger powerful and lasting immune responses and can help prevent or delay recurrence of cancer in high-risk patients whose tumors are driven by KRAS mutations. After prolonged follow -up of 19.7 months, the researchers found that median survival without relapse was 16.33 months and that the median overall survival was 28.94 months exceeding historical standards – with the greatest advantage observed in patients who have developed solid responses from specific MKRAS T cells. For example, median survival without relapse has not been reached against 3.02 months, and global median survival has not been reached against 15.98 months by comparing the groups of cells of T cells compared to T cells.
“This is an exciting step forward for patients with cancer focused on Kras, in particular pancreatic cancer, where recurrence after standard treatment is almost a given and effective therapy is limited,” said the first author of the Zev Wainberg study, MD, professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine Health Jonsson understanding Cancer Center. “We have observed that patients who have developed strong immune responses to the vaccine have remained without illness and survived much longer than expected. »»
The study, which included monitoring data for the 201 -phase 1 AMPLIFY trial, evaluated the safety and efficiency of a vaccination led by lymph nodes that target KRAS mutations. These mutations are in around 25% of solid tumors and lead approximately 90% of pancreatic cancers and 50% of colorectal cancers.
Unlike certain other cancer treatments which may have to be personalized for each patient according to their specific characteristics and mutations, ELI-002 2P is a “standard” vaccine which is designed to be a standardized product which can stimulate the immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells in general, without the need to consume time and the complex process of creating a single vaccination for each patient.
The study followed 25 patients with pancreatic canal adenocarcinoma (20) or colorectal cancer (5) which had undergone surgery and shown signs of minimum residual disease, or traces of blood cancer which often signal a relapse.
Each patient has received a series of injections with ELI-002 2P, which uses an amphiphone technology developed by Elicio Therapeutics which helps harm antigens directly to lymph nodes, where immune responses are activated.
Among the results:
- 84% of patients (21 out of 25) generated specific T cells from KRAS, including CD4 + assistance cells and CD8 + killer cells. Above all, many of these cells have persisted over time.
- In 24% of patients (3 pancreatic, 3 colorectals), the biomarkers associated with the tumor were completely eliminated.
- Patients with higher responses (above the threshold) have had a longer survival compared to those with lower T cells. In patients with higher responses, median survival without relapse has not been reached, which means that so many patients were still without cancer, a median relapse time could not be calculated, against 3.02 months (p = 0.0002) in those with lower responses, and the overall median survival was not reached against 15.98 months (p = 0.0099) among strong people.
- 67% of patients tested have developed immune responses to additional changes associated with tumors, suggesting a broader anti-tumor activity.
Kras targeting has long been considered one of the difficult challenges of cancer therapy. This study shows that the ELI-002 2P vaccine can safely and effectively train the immune system to recognize and combat cancer mutations. It offers a promising approach to generate precise and durable immune responses without the complexity or cost of fully personalized vaccines. “”
Zev Wainberg, MD, professor of medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at the UCLA
The research team carried out the registration in a wider study of phase 2 of ELI-002 7P, a new generation version of the vaccine which targets a wider set of KRAS mutations.
The main authors of the study are Shubham Pant of the MD Anderson Cancer Center and Eileen O’Reilly of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. A complete list of authors is in the study.
The study was sponsored and financed by Elicio Therapeutics.