Immunotherapy for Glioblastoma Well Tolerated; Survival Gains Observed

Duke: A phase one study of 11 patients with glioblastoma who received injections of an investigational vaccine therapy and an approved chemotherapy showed the combination to be well tolerated while also resulting in unexpectedly significant survival increases, researchers at the Duke Cancer Institute report. Patients treated with the study drug (dose-intensified temozolomide and vaccines) were continuously monitored for toxicity and adverse events. Study patients experienced known side effects with temozolomide, including nausea, lymphopenia, thrombocytopenia and fatigue. There were no treatment limiting adverse events and no adverse events related to the cellular portion of the vaccine. One patient developed a grade 3 vaccine-related allergic reaction to the GM-CSF component of the vaccine. The patient was able to continue vaccinations in which the GM-CSF was removed and had no subsequent adverse events.

Potential of an immunotherapy demonstrated in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease

INSERM: The involvement of the immune system in neurological diseases suggests that immunotherapy, which has shown its effectiveness in the area of cancer and autoimmune diseases, is also of major interest in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. This has been shown by the teams of Nathalie Cartier-Lacave (Inserm Research Director, Inserm/CEA Joint Research Unit 1169, “Gene Therapy, Genetics and Epigenetics in Neurology, Endocrinology, Cardiology and Child Development”) and David Klatzmann (Director of Inserm/Pierre and Marie Curie University Joint Research Unit 959, “Immunology – Immunopathology – Immunotherapy,” and head of the biotherapy department at Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, AP-HP), whose work is published today in the journal Brain. The researchers have proven that a molecule called interleukin-2 (IL-2), from the immune system, is able to control inflammation in the brain cells, which is implicated in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, and can restore impaired cognitive functions in the animal model.

Immunotherapy in the Precision Medicine Era: Melanoma and Beyond

PLOS: Innovations in cancer immunotherapy over the past decade have reinvigorated the field, which currently stands poised to transform treatment of certain important cancer types. While recent discoveries in immunotherapy have occurred in an era of intense focus on precision medicine—spurred in large part by advances in sequencing technologies allowing for unprecedented insights into individual and tumor genomes—the field of cancer immunotherapy is rooted in a history that is anything but precise. The idea that the immune system could be used to target cancer has existed for over a century.

3 Innovations of the Cuban Lung Cancer Vaccine

Roswell Park is opening a clinical trial to study the CIMAvax-EGF® vaccine, a cancer treatment that was developed in Cuba. This vaccine, a type of immunotherapy that harnesses the body’s immune system, will be used to treat patients with lung cancer, the most common cause of cancer death worldwide. In the United States, more people die every year of lung cancer than the other major cancers – breast, prostate, and colon – combined. We need better options for patients and this vaccine trial is innovative in three significant ways.

Genetic Biomarker May Predict Cancer Patients Response to Immunotherapy Drug

Ohio: Changes that knock out genes involved the repair of damaged DNA might predict who will respond to certain immunotherapy drugs, according to data from a proof of principle study co-authored by scientists at The Ohio State University. The finding comes from an ongoing phase 2 trial examining the effectiveness of the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab (marketed as Keytruda). The research appears in the May 30, 2015, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

An immunotherapy technology for treating cancer and other diseases has been patented and will be the initial focus of a newly-formed company

Wellington: Equity investment for the company, called Avalia Immunotherapies, is coming from New Zealand investment firm Powerhouse Ventures, the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund, Malcorp Biodiscoveries Limited and Victoria Link Limited (Victoria University’s commercialisation office). The director of the Ferrier Research Institute, Professor Richard Furneaux, says Avalia Immunotherapies will further develop the ground-breaking technology and aims to progress it to clinical trials. It works as a therapeutic vaccine, activating a patient’s own immune system to recognise and attack cancer cells.

Taiwan Genomics Research Team Discovers IL-17RB Antibody Blocks Migration of Pancreatic Cancer

Academia Sinica: A research team led by Academician Wen-Hwa Lee, a Distinguished Research Fellow from the Genomics Research Center, Academia Sinica and the President of China Medical University of Taiwan, recently discovered a protein (IL-17B receptor, IL-17RB) that is strongly associated with migration of pancreatic cancer to other organs after surgery. Using an antibody against IL-17RB, the researchers were able to block tumor metastasis and improve the survival of mice. Pancreatic cancer has an extremely high mortality rate due to its aggressive nature. These findings shed light on a key mechanism underling the highly aggressive nature of pancreatic cancer and also provide a possibility for a future therapy. The discovery was published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine (JEM) on March 3, 2015.

New therapy for effective treatment of tumours

Maastricht University. Netherlands: Researchers at the Maastricht UMC+ and the Maastro Clinic have provided evidence that combining radiotherapy and a new kind of immunotherapy is an effective way of fighting cancer cells. Experiments have shown that using both therapies in combination causes 75 percent of the treated tumours to disappear. The Maastricht research team will shortly be starting a clinical study so that this new treatment can eventually be used on patients. The results of the study have been published in the medical journal Clinical Cancer Research.