On July 15, 2021 Advaxis, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADXS), a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the development and commercialization of immunotherapy products, reported the initiation of its Phase 1 clinical study evaluating ADXS-504 in patients with biochemically recurrent prostate cancer (Press release, Advaxis, JUL 15, 2021, View Source [SID1234584871]). The study, being conducted at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, is the first clinical evaluation of ADXS-504, Advaxis’ off-the-shelf neoantigen immunotherapy drug candidate for early prostate cancer. Mark Stein, M.D., associate professor of medicine in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, is the study’s principal investigator.
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"Evaluating ADXS-504 in patients with biochemically recurrent prostate cancer is the first step in testing whether Lm-based immunotherapies may have a role in the adjuvant setting in cancer patients who have undergone radical therapy and who have no detectable primary tumor or metastatic disease at enrollment," said Dr. Andres Gutierrez, Chief Medical Officer of Advaxis. "This Phase 1 study will evaluate the safety, tolerability, immunogenicity and clinical activity of ADXS-504 in men who have undergone radical prostatectomy or radiotherapy and whose prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels in the blood are rising, which we believe are ideal patients to evaluate with this approach. Moreover, we believe our multi-neoantigen vector has the potential to drive T cell responses against both hormone-sensitive and hormone-resistant cancer cells, which could result in disease control and may delay the start of androgen blockade therapy and its associated long-term complications. This study will also examine our lowest dose of an Lm-based immunotherapy to date, which could enhance the risk/benefit ratio that we have previously observed in our ADXS-HOT program."
Kenneth A. Berlin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Advaxis stated, "We are pleased to be launching the first clinical evaluation of ADXS-504, expanding the reach of our off-the-shelf neoantigen immunotherapy program to a second potential indication. Our strong foundation of clinical data generated across both prostate cancer and non-small cell lung cancer suggest Lm-based immunotherapy may bring meaningful clinical benefit to patients and we look forward to continued momentum across the ADXS-HOT program."
The Phase 1 open-label dose escalation study will evaluate the safety and tolerability of two dose levels (1e7 and 1e8 CFU) of ADXS-504 monotherapy, administered via infusion every four weeks for six total doses in 9-18 patients with biochemically recurrent prostate cancer (i.e., those with elevation of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in the blood after radical prostatectomy or radical radiotherapy (external beam or brachytherapy) and who are not currently receiving androgen ablation therapy). The study will also evaluate preliminary clinical and immune responses following treatment with ADXS-504 monotherapy.
ADXS-504 is a novel Lm-based immunotherapy, bioengineered to elicit T cell responses against 24 tumor antigens that include 14 peptide antigens derived from frequently occurring and commonly shared hotspot mutations in patients with prostate cancer and 10 peptide antigens derived from sequence-optimized tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) that are differentially expressed or overexpressed in prostate cancer. ADXS-504 is designed to express multiple tumor antigen targets to which patients may generate a broad set of effector T cells for tumor control. Similar to Advaxis’s other Lm-based immunotherapies, ADXS-504 is expected to induce an innate immune response followed by the adaptive response and modification of the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) by reducing regulatory T cells (Tregs) and myeloid-derived suppressor cell (MDSC) frequencies in the TME.