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(Oxford, U.K. and Philadelphia, U.S, 25 July, 2013) — Adaptimmune announced today that it has opened a Phase I/IIa, multiple-site, two-cohort, open-label clinical trial in ovarian cancer at Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) in Buffalo, N.Y., and City of Hope (COH) in Duarte, Calif.
Researchers will investigate the safety, bioactivity and effectiveness of treating patients with their own T cells after genetically engineering the cells to enhance their anti-tumor properties.
“T cells are the foot soldiers of the human immune system, attacking invaders like bacteria, viruses and cancer,” says Kunle Odunsi, MD, PhD, Director of RPCI’s Center for Immunotherapy and the study chair. “We believe that by modifying the T cells so that they express a high-affinity receptor for a protein that is a known cancer/testis (CT) antigen, we can fully exploit their ability as cancer killers.”
During the trial, T cell receptors (TCRs) that have been developed using Adaptimmune’s unique TCR enhancement technology will be deployed to target two CT antigens, NYESO-1 and LAGE-1. They will be transferred to the patients’ T cells in a process for autologous T cell manufacturing developed by Carl June, MD, and Bruce Levine, PhD, at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Pa., and then licensed to Adaptimmune. Manufacturing will be performed centrally by Progenitor Cell Therapy in Allendale, N.J.
Adaptimmune is the regulatory sponsor, owns the core T cell receptor technology, and is funding the study. Dr. Odunsi is the lead clinical investigator at RPCI and protocol Chair. Mihaela Cristea, MD, associate clinical professor, Medical Oncology, is the lead clinical investigator at City of Hope.
The study is opening on the heels of promising clinical data emerging in sarcoma and myeloma studies, where the same engineered T cell product is under investigation. Interim data from these studies was presented at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting in March and American Society for Cell and Gene Therapy Annual Meeting in May of this year.
Ovarian carcinoma is the fourth-most-common cancer in women, accounting for approximately 22,000 new cases and 15,000 deaths per year in the United States. With standard therapy, long-term response rates are low, and the five-year survival rate for advanced ovarian cancer is only 30%. The clinical trial focuses on this unmet medical need and will include patients who are resistant to chemotherapy and/or have received more than two lines of chemotherapy for their ovarian cancer.
Infusion of the CT antigen-specific T cells will occur following a brief treatment with relatively high dose of “lymphodepleting” chemotherapy to prepare the patient’s immune system for the gene-modified T cells. Previous clinical trials for different cancer indications have demonstrated that the lymphodepleting chemotherapy procedure is safe and promotes reconstitution of the immune system with the gene-modified T cells.
Dr. Odunsi is also the Chair of Gynecologic Oncology at RPCI and has been studying NY-ESO-1 vaccines in immunotherapy clinical trials for ovarian cancer patients since 2002. “NY-ESO is a very promising tumour antigen that I have worked with for years under the umbrella of the Cancer Vaccine Collaborative (CVC) Program of the Cancer Research Institute and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research,” says Dr. Odunsi. “This technology basically allows us to genetically engineer a powerful T cell response in patients against the NY-ESO-1 antigen, which is very exciting.” Stephen J. Forman, MD, director of the T Cell Therapeutics Research Laboratory at City of Hope, initially brought the Adaptimmune technology to City of Hope due to his long-standing interest in adoptive and engineered T cell therapy for cancer. “The evaluation of this therapy in both hematologic and solid tumors will help us to understand the function of the engineered T cells in different tumor settings,” says Dr. Forman, chair of the Department of Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation and holder of the Francis and Kathleen McNamara Distinguished Chair in Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation. “I’m very enthusiastic to have this study join our programs at City of Hope, and to be able to offer our patients these novel and promising therapies.”
A myeloma study using this technology is also planned at the site.
A total of six patients will be enrolled in the ovarian trial. Only patients capable of responding to the therapy — those with the correct tissue marker (HLA-A*0201) and whose tumor expresses NY-ESO-1 and/or Lage-1 — will be enrolled. Enrollment is expected to complete within six to nine months. If data are promising, the study may be extended to include more patients.
“We are enormously pleased to be working with world leaders in immunotherapy for cancer,” says James Noble, CEO of Adaptimmune. “Ovarian cancer is an important clinical indication with which to evaluate our CT antigen specific TCRs because of the dismal prognosis of current standard care for advanced ovarian cancer, so the effects of the T cell immunotherapy can be rapidly assessed.”
Additional study details and contact information for patients interested in finding out more about participation can be found at clincialtrials.gov, under trial identifier number NCT01567891.
Both City of Hope and Roswell Park Cancer Institute are National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers.
Contact
Margaret Henry
PR Consultant
Adaptimmune Ltd, UK
T: +44 (0)1865 261491
Mob: +44 (0) 7771 377363
E: m.henry@oxin.co.uk
Dr. Kunle Odunsi, Dr. Cristea and Dr. Forman have no financial interest or other relationship with Adaptimmune Ltd, apart from their scientific collaboration in conducting laboratory experiments and planning human clinical trials.
About Adaptimmune
Adaptimmune Limited is focused on the use of T cell therapy to treat HIV and cancer. It aims to utilize the body’s own machinery – the T lymphocyte cell – to target and destroy cancerous or infected cells. Established in July 2008, Adaptimmune was set up to develop Immunocore Ltd’s (formerly Avidex/MediGeneLtd’s) unique T cell receptor engineering technology for adoptive T cell therapy.
Specifically, Adaptimmune makes use of the body’s ability to recognize infected or cancerous cells by enhancing the power of the T cell receptor (TCR) on killer T cells.
Cancerous or virally infected cells will typically present small parts or peptides of larger viral proteins or abnormal cancer proteins on their surface, offering a “molecular fingerprint”, called an epitope, for killer T-cells from the immune system to identify. In a healthy individual, this triggers an immune response, eliminating the affected cell. However, viruses such as HIV mutate rapidly, swiftly disguising their fingerprints to allow them to hide from killer T-cells while cancer proteins are usually derived from self-proteins against which natural TCRs do not respond. Adaptimmune’s technology uniquely enhances the natural TCR affinity to either viral or cancer protein epitopes on an individual patient’s cells overcoming these obstacles for therapeutic benefit.
Adaptimmune has undertaken significant preclinical development with a number of pipeline TCRs to demonstrate their potency and specificity in vitro. The TCRs in the current ovarian study are specific to the cancer testis antigen targets NY-ESO-1 157-165 (HLA A2; SLLMWITQC) and was engineered using Adaptimmune’s proprietary TCR engineering platform. It is poised to gather clinical safety and efficacy data on these and other TCRs with regulatory approvals for human trials in HIV and multiple cancers now in place. http://www.adaptimmune.com
About Roswell Park Cancer Institute
The mission of Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) is to understand, prevent and cure cancer. Founded in 1898, RPCI is one of the first cancer centers in the country to be named a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center and remains the only facility with this designation in Upstate New York. The Institute is a member of the prestigious National Comprehensive Cancer Network, an alliance of the nation’s leading cancer centers; maintains affiliate sites; and is a partner in national and international collaborative programs. For more information, visit www.roswellpark.org, call 1-877-ASK-RPCI (1-877-275-7724) or email askrpci@roswellpark.org. Follow Roswell Park on Facebook and Twitter.
About City of Hope
City of Hope is a leading research and treatment center for cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases. Designated as a comprehensive cancer center, the highest recognition bestowed by the National Cancer Institute, City of Hope is also a founding member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, with research and treatment protocols that advance care throughout the nation. City of Hope’s main hospital is located in Duarte, Calif., just northeast of Los Angeles, with clinics in Antelope Valley and South Pasadena. It is ranked as one of “America’s Best Hospitals” in cancer by U.S.News & World Report. Founded in 1913, City of Hope is a pioneer in the fields of bone marrow transplantation and genetics. For more information, visit www.cityofhope.org or follow City of Hope on facebook, twitter, youtube or flickr.
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