On February 4, 2020 OncoSec Medical Incorporated ("OncoSec") (Nasdaq: ONCS), a company developing late-stage intratumoral cancer immunotherapies, reported the publication of data showing that TAVO (plasmid-based interleukin-12) treatment, administered through OncoSec’s electroporation gene delivery system, resulted in regression of injected and non-injected Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) tumors (Press release, OncoSec Medical, FEB 4, 2020, View Source [SID1234553808]). The study, a pilot with fifteen patients, is featured on the cover of the February issue of Clinical Cancer Research (print edition available here).
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The study showed that all patients successfully received at least one treatment cycle of TAVO via electroporation, OncoSec’s lead product candidate, without significant systemic toxicity and with only transient, mild grade adverse events. Sustained intratumoral expression of IL-12 protein was observed, along with increased tumor-specific CD8+ T cell infiltration, as well as systemic immunologic and clinical responses. In the first cohort (A, n=3), two of three patients were recurrence-free at 44+ and 75+ months, respectively, and one of these patients experienced pathologic complete remission. In the second cohort (B, n=12), overall response rate was 25 percent, with two patients experiencing durable clinical benefit (16 and 55+ months, respectively).
"Achieving the cover study in Clinical Cancer Research is an important milestone, as it further validates the use of TAVO via electroporation as a meaningful immunotherapeutic agent in this cancer setting," stated Christopher G. Twitty, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of OncoSec. "We believe this study reinforces the broad potential to treat multiple types of cancer using TAVO with our proprietary electroporation gene delivery system. We look forward to building on these studies and further investigating TAVO for the immunotherapy of cancer."