Just weeks after gaining rights to an off-the-shelf therapeutic cancer vaccine involved in a collaboration with the NCI and NIH, Bavarian Nordic says that CV-301 produced some positive results in a small but potentially significant study involving patients with advanced breast and ovarian cancers.
Relying on NCI funding, investigators recruited 26 patients and gave them monthly injections of the cancer vaccine. The median overall survival rate for the 12 breast cancer patients hit 13.7 months, with median time to progression hitting 2.5 months. The researchers added that one breast cancer patient demonstrated a complete response and remained in the study for more than 37 months. The 14 ovarian cancer patients experienced a median OS rate of 15 months with median TTP at 2 months. Treatment with CV-301 was reported to be well tolerated, with mild injection-site reactions representing the most common side effect.
Reiner Laus, president of the cancer vaccine division, noted that the study indicates that "overall survival, rather than time to progression or tumor shrinkage, may be a more relevant clinical endpoint in evaluating the effects of immunotherapies. The sustained benefit seen in some patients receiving CV-301 provides additional insight into the potential of this therapeutic vaccine and we look forward to results from an ongoing randomized Phase II study of CV-301 in patients with metastatic breast cancer."
- here's the press release