On November 10, 2017 Five Prime Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq:FPRX), a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing innovative immuno-oncology protein therapeutics, reported that analyses of FGFR2b expression and baseline immune signature in urothelial cancer (UC) samples were featured in a poster presentation at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) (Free SITC Whitepaper) 32nd Annual Meeting, being held November 8-12, 2017 in National Harbor, Maryland (Press release, Five Prime Therapeutics, NOV 10, 2017, View Source [SID1234521937]). A PDF of the poster, "FGFR2b Expression and Baseline Immune Signature to Guide FPA144 Development in Urothelial Cancer," will be made available on the Publications page of the Five Prime website. Five Prime is developing FPA144, an isoform-selective antibody, as a targeted immunotherapy for tumors that overexpress FGFR2b. Five Prime continues to enroll patients in the Phase 1 trial cohort evaluating FPA144 as a treatment for patients with bladder cancer whose tumors overexpress FGFR2b.
Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo!
Discover why more than 1,500 members use 1stOncology™ to excel in:
Early/Late Stage Pipeline Development - Target Scouting - Clinical Biomarkers - Indication Selection & Expansion - BD&L Contacts - Conference Reports - Combinatorial Drug Settings - Companion Diagnostics - Drug Repositioning - First-in-class Analysis - Competitive Analysis - Deals & Licensing
Schedule Your 30 min Free Demo!
"Profiling FGFR2b expression and baseline tumor-associated immune cells could help guide our clinical development strategy for FPA144 in bladder cancer," said Kevin Baker, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Development Sciences at Five Prime. "Previously we showed in a pre-clinical model with moderate FGFR2b expression, that FPA144 can reprogram the tumor microenvironment making it more inflammatory. In the same studies, we also showed that FPA144 and PD-1 blockade have additive anti-tumor effects."
Five Prime evaluated FGFR2b expression in 387 archival primary early stage UC samples and previously reported that > 10% had overexpression of FGFR2b by immunohistochemistry (IHC) with intensity level of at least 1+. The research team selected 32 archival UC cases with a range of FGFR2b expression (62% were FGFR2b positive) and characterized baseline immune composition in the tumor microenvironment and the relationship with FGFR2b expression to potentially guide FPA144 development in combination with other therapies.
The results from the selected cases suggest that FGFR2b is expressed in all immune subtypes of UCs, but the expression level varies. The highest level of expression is in inflamed and more proliferative UCs. The Company plans to evaluate additional archival UC tissues from patients with more advanced metastatic disease to determine if there is an association of FGFR2b expression with baseline immune signature in late-stage patient tumors.