Following treatment with Introgen’s experimental cancer vaccine, 67% of the evaluable patients in the study had objective responses (greater than 50% tumor reduction) to subsequent chemotherapy. Historically, the expected objective response rate in these patients is between 20 and 30%. Initial results also show that the vaccine was well tolerated, with no appreciable INGN 225-related toxicity in any of the treated patients.
“These results are very encouraging given the surprisingly substantial proportion of patients who responded to second-line chemotherapy following treatment with INGN 225,” said Dr Scott Antonia, associate professor in the interdisciplinary oncology program at the H Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and the leading clinical investigator in the study.
“This high rate of response is not typically seen in this patient population, and the results observed so far suggest that INGN 225 may sensitize cancer cells to the effects of chemotherapy. This is a promising finding and suggests that INGN 225 may have important utility in the future treatment of small cell lung cancer.”
“Our data in lung cancer patients indicate that INGN 225 may sensitize tumors to the effects of platinum and taxane chemotherapies,” added Dr Robert Sobol, Introgen’s senior vice president of scientific and medical affairs. “As platinum, taxanes and doxorubicin are among the most common types of cancer chemotherapies, these findings have important future implications for improving the efficacy of these widely utilized cancer treatments.”
Platinum, taxanes and doxorubicin are widely employed drugs in the treatment of cancer that include Platinol (cisplatin) and Paraplatin (carboplatin) marketed by Bristol-Myers Squibb, paclitaxel (BMS’ Taxol), docetaxel (Sanofi-Aventis’ Taxotere) and doxorubicin (Bedford Laboratories’ Adriamycin). These agents are among the most widely utilized forms of cancer chemotherapy.
INGN 225 is also being evaluated in a phase I/II trial in patients with breast cancer.