The new pancreatic cancer vaccine from ImmunityBio shows very promising results. Here’s what you need to know about the vaccine and its result from the tests.
Pancreatic cancer vaccine shows promising results.
ImmunityBio today shared interim results from its ongoing metastatic pancreatic cancer trial, demonstrating overall survival that’s double the historical rate.
The Phase II QUILT 88 trial is an open-label study that’s designed to test the efficacy and safety of ImmunityBio’s Nant Pancreatic Cancer Vaccine in patients diagnosed with locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer. It is being compared with the standard-of-care high-dose chemotherapy for first- and second-line treatment evaluated independently with experimental and control arms as Cohort A and B.
The Nant Pancreatic Cancer Vaccine is also being studied against a third cohort, Cohort C, which involves patients receiving third-line or greater chemotherapy and has overall survival (OS) as the primary endpoint. The main objective of Cohorts A and B is progression-free survival (PFS). Secondary endpoints include complete response, overall response rate, disease control rate, the durability of response, and overall survival.
About the Preliminary Results of Pancreatic Cancer Vaccine
According to preliminary results, the OS for patients doubled against the current historical rate of three months after receiving two therapy lines. Researchers also reported that only 8% of the subjects experienced serious adverse events, which was uncommon, and that there were no deaths.
With these results, ImmunityBio said it is scheduling a meeting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration this year to discuss the treatment’s future, particularly in combination therapy approaches for pancreatic cancer.
The Nant Pancreatic Cancer Vaccine is made up of the company’s IL-15 receptor agonist Anktiva (N-803), targeted natural killer cells PD-L1 t-haNK, and aldoxorubicin, an albumin-modulated agent, in addition to low-dose chemotherapy. QUILT 88 is being conducted in three trial trials, namely The Chan Soon-Shiong Institute for Medicine in Los Angeles, Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Orange County, and Avera McKennan Hospital and University Health Center in Sioux Falls.
“Based on this encouraging data from our QUILT 88 trial, we are hopeful that our Nant Cancer Vaccine can potentially address this unmet need. What’s more, we designed this therapeutic candidate to be administered in an outpatient setting making it more accessible to future patients than traditional immune checkpoint inhibitors,” said Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, the founder and glocal chief scientific and medical officer of ImmunityBio, in a statement.
Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of death related to cancer in the U.S., claiming some 50,000 lives per year. Typical treatment options due to the unavailability of pancreatic cancer vaccines include surgery and subsequent adjuvant chemotherapy. Unfortunately, only 3% of those with late-stage pancreatic cancer achieve the five-year survival rate.
