Aduro BioTech Says New Mesothelioma Trial has Begun
Berkeley, California - In the continued fight against aggressive malignant mesothelioma, Aduro Bio Tech has enrolled the first patient in the trial that will test the company’s new therapeutic cancer vaccine, dubbed CRS-207.
The vaccine is “based on Aduro's platform of attenuated Listeria monocytogenes (Listeria) strains that have been genetically modified and engineered to induce a potent immune response specific for the mesothelin tumor-associated antigen that is expressed on certain tumor types, including mesothelioma,” read a statement in a press release from Aduro.
During the trial, which is being conducted at The National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda, Maryland and the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida, newly-diagnosed patients will receive two vaccinations with the trial drug, followed by the current standard-of-care chemotherapy for the treatment of mesothelioma, which usually consists of pemetrexed (Alimta) and cisplatin. An additional 2 “boost” vaccines will be given after the chemotherapy as well.
"This trial will evaluate our vaccine treatment for the first time in front-line cancer patients, and we predict a synergistic benefit to their standard chemotherapy," said Dr. Dirk Brockstedt, Senior Vice President of Research and Development at Aduro.
The vaccine has already been evaluated in a Phase I trial with 17 patients with end-stage cancer of various types, including mesothelioma. Results were recently reported in the journal Clinical Cancer Research.
“Despite a historical average survival time of only 3-5 months for this advanced-cancer patient population, six out of 17 patients treated with CRS-207 in this Phase 1 trial lived 15 months or longer,” the report noted. “These promising results have led to two ongoing clinical trials with CRS-207: the Phase 2 clinical trial in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer and the new Phase 1B trial in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma.”
Working on the trial at NCI will be Dr. Raffit Hassan, Senior Investigator, and at Moffitt, Dr. Scott Antonia, Professor and Chair of Thoracic Oncology, will be leading the clinical trial.
