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New lung cancer vaccine trial launched
Source: (cancerfacts.com)
Thursday, December 11, 2008
LA JOLLA, CA – Dec. 11, 2008 – A new genetically engineered vaccine is showing promising results in extending survival of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer say researchers.
Unlike most vaccines that attempt to boost the immune system to attack the cancer, this vaccine (Lucanix™) takes a new approach to treating cancer by tricking the tumor into turning off its immune system "shield" by blocking the tumor's ability to suppress the immune system.
Led by Dr. Lyudmila Bazhenova, director of the Lung Cancer Unit at the University of California San Diego Cancer Center at the Moores Cancer Center, researchers at 90 cancer centers around the world are enrolling up to 700 patients with advanced lung cancer to compare Lucanix to best supportive care and placebo. She says treatment advances for late-stage lung cancer have stalled somewhat with limited success in extending survival, and that new approaches are needed.
"While breast cancer mortality has declined about 15 percent, there hasn't been much improvement in mortality in lung cancer in the past several decades," Bazhenova said in a prepared statement. "The future treatments for advanced lung cancer may involve combinations of chemotherapy and targeted agents, and possibly even biologicals such as this."
The trial is a double-blind, placebo-controlled study, meaning neither patients nor doctors know who is getting the vaccine and who is receiving a placebo. Patients receive injections once a month for 18 months, after which they receive two quarterly injections and are treated until disease progression. The trial's main goal is to determine if the vaccine can improve patient survival compared to placebo.
The current trial is for patients with stage four non-small cell lung cancer who have completed four to six cycles of platinum-based chemotherapy. Those patients, who have had a response to the treatment, meaning their tumors either grew smaller or stayed the same, may be eligible.
Bazhenova explained that earlier tests of the vaccine's effectiveness produced encouraging results. In an earlier small trial, 59 percent of those who received the vaccine were still alive more than three years after their diagnosis. With current treatments, most such end-stage lung cancer patients don't survive one year.
The vaccine, developed by NovaRx, a biopharmaceutical company based in San Diego, consists of lung cancer cells that have been genetically altered to shut down the cancer's ability to depress the immune system. In addition, the cells are also modified to enable the immune system to see them better.
According to the American Cancer Society, an estimated 215,000 new cases of lung cancer will be diagnosed, and 162,000 individuals will die from the disease this year in the United States, more than the number of people who die of breast, prostate and colon cancer combined.
For more information, or to find a clinical trial site near you, visit the www.clinicaltrials.gov.
SOURCE: press materials provided by the University of California San Diego Cancer Center at the Moores Cancer Center.
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