On April 2, 2019 Oncolytics Biotech Inc. (NASDAQ: ONCY) (TSX: ONC), currently developing pelareorep, an intravenously delivered immuno-oncolytic virus, reported a poster presentation at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting 2019 which is taking place March 30 through April 3 in Atlanta, Georgia (Press release, Oncolytics Biotech, APR 2, 2019, View Source [SID1234534909]).
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The poster, entitled, "Exploratory analysis of T cell repertoire dynamics upon systemic treatment with the oncolytic virus pelareorep in combination with pembrolizumab and chemotherapy in patients with advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma," describes analysis of patient samples from REO 024; a study of pelareorep and Keytruda in combination with chemotherapy in patients with advanced (second-line) pancreatic cancer.
"We are thrilled with the rates of disease control observed in this study evaluating pelareorep and Keytruda in combination with chemotherapy in patients with advanced second-line pancreatic cancer," said Dr. Matt Coffey, President and Chief Executive Officer of Oncolytics Biotech. "The data presented at AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) now demonstrate that the degree of T cell clonality, examined in patients from REO 024, has the potential to serve as a predictive and prognostic biomarker of pelareorep therapy. Providing physicians with a simple blood test to understand which patients are likely to respond to treatment is invaluable, allowing the medical community to target the right treatment to the right patient. We look forward to utilizing this new biomarker as we move forward with all of our current clinical programs with checkpoint inhibitors including trials for multiple myeloma, our ongoing phase 2 second-line pancreatic cancer study, and of course, our breast cancer program."
Dr. Rita Laeufle, Chief Medical Officer of Oncolytics Biotech, said, "These data provide additional insight into the underlying biology that drives the efficacy of pelareorep therapy when combined with a checkpoint inhibitor and chemotherapy. We see that treatment with pelareorep can educate or prime the immune system early on during treatment. This priming occurs after pelareorep but before Keytruda, highlighting the synergy of these agents given that checkpoint inhibitors need a primed immune system that recognizes cancer cells in order to work. Importantly, the extent of early priming measured before the addition of Keytruda, is what most strongly correlates to overall survival. We believe these biological changes are intimately tied to pelareorep’s mechanism of action and serve as a biomarker with utility across multiple cancer types."
Key data and conclusions:
Patients treated with pelareorep in combination with chemotherapy and pembrolizumab showed changes in their T cell repertories with high turnover and significant expansion during treatment
These post-treatment expanded T cell populations, are "new" clones not present at baseline, suggesting effective priming of the immune system
Higher T cell clonality at baseline correlates with longer progression free survival (HR=0.05, p=0.01) and overall survival (HR=0.12, p=0.01) demonstrating the predictive value of the assay
Enhanced T cell clonality after the first cycle of treatment correlates with improved overall survival (HR=0.08, p=0.01) and serves as an on-treatment prognostic biomarker
Early expanded T cell clones, detected at day 8 of treatment (prior to pembrolizumab), most strongly correlate with survival time which suggests that early versus late clonal expansion may be elicited by pelareorep treatment
T cell clonality has significant potential as a predictive and prognostic on-treatment biomarker to pelareorep therapy
The poster was authored by Dr. Grey Wilkinson, a translational scientist at Oncolytics Biotech, and his colleagues, in collaboration with Northwestern University, UT Health San Antonio and Adaptive Biotechnologies. The poster can be found on the Posters & Publications page of Oncolytics’ website, View Source
About Pelareorep
Pelareorep is a non-pathogenic, proprietary isolate of the unmodified reovirus: a first-in-class intravenously delivered immuno-oncolytic virus for the treatment of solid tumors and hematological malignancies. The compound induces selective tumor lysis and promotes an inflamed tumor phenotype through innate and adaptive immune responses to treat a variety of cancers and has been demonstrated to be able to escape neutralizing antibodies found in patients.