OncoSec & UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine Collaborate
Jun 2, 2015 0:57:55 GMT
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Post by RLC on Jun 2, 2015 0:57:55 GMT
ir.oncosec.com/press-releases/detail/1822/oncosec-medical-and-uc-davis-school-of-veterinary-medicine
OncoSec Medical and UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine Collaborate to Test Intratumoral Cancer Immunotherapy in Canine Soft Tissue Sarcoma
SAN DIEGO, June 1, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- OncoSec Medical Inc. ("OncoSec") (NASDAQ: ONCS), a company developing DNA-based intratumoral cancer immunotherapies, today announced a collaboration with University of California, Davis (UC Davis) School of Veterinary Medicine to test ImmunoPulse™ IL-12 as an immunotherapy in dogs with soft tissue sarcoma. The primary goals of the canine study are to advance the understanding of the mechanism of action of ImmunoPulse™ IL-12 and validate key clinical biomarkers.
"This clinical trial in canine patients underscores our commitment to collaborating with leaders in the medical and scientific community with the shared goal of advancing the development of cancer immunotherapies," said Robert H. Pierce, MD, Chief Scientific Officer at OncoSec. "We're very excited to work with UC Davis, a pioneering institution in both human and veterinary medicine. This partnership is key to expanding our understanding of how ImmunoPulse™ IL-12 will address the unmet medical need of the human anti-PD-1 non-responder population and hopefully, provide a clinical benefit to the participating companion dogs."
The study is an open label, neoadjuvant two-arm pilot trial in approximately 12 canines with soft tissue sarcoma. Eligible canine patients will be randomized to receive one of the two experimental ImmunoPulse™ IL-12 treatment schedules, followed by definitive surgical resection of the tumor.
"We are pleased to begin our collaboration with OncoSec to evaluate potential immune responses in canine soft tissue sarcoma and compare results in two treatment schedules of pIL-12 electroporation," said Michael S. Kent, DVM, Associate Professor of Surgical & Radiological Sciences at UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and principal investigator of this study. "We anticipate OncoSec's intratumoral immunotherapy platform will trigger a programmatic change in otherwise suppressive antigen-presenting cells within the tumor and result in the activation of CD8+ T-cells."
"Since OncoSec treatments are DNA-based, we can easily encode canine sequences in our plasmids, allowing us to 'double-down' and investigate these compounds as anti-cancer therapies in canines, while seizing the opportunity to understand the mechanism of these agents in 'real' spontaneously occurring tumors in canine patients," added Dr. Pierce. "In my opinion, clinical investigation of cancer therapeutics – especially immunotherapies – in spontaneous tumors in companion animals is an underutilized, high-yield translational medicine approach."
To date, OncoSec's core immunotherapy platform, ImmunoPulse™, has been used to deliver DNA-based IL-12 in Phase II clinical trials for metastatic melanoma and Merkel cell carcinoma and plans to initiate Phase II studies in head and neck cancer and triple negative breast cancer.
OncoSec Medical and UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine Collaborate to Test Intratumoral Cancer Immunotherapy in Canine Soft Tissue Sarcoma
SAN DIEGO, June 1, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- OncoSec Medical Inc. ("OncoSec") (NASDAQ: ONCS), a company developing DNA-based intratumoral cancer immunotherapies, today announced a collaboration with University of California, Davis (UC Davis) School of Veterinary Medicine to test ImmunoPulse™ IL-12 as an immunotherapy in dogs with soft tissue sarcoma. The primary goals of the canine study are to advance the understanding of the mechanism of action of ImmunoPulse™ IL-12 and validate key clinical biomarkers.
"This clinical trial in canine patients underscores our commitment to collaborating with leaders in the medical and scientific community with the shared goal of advancing the development of cancer immunotherapies," said Robert H. Pierce, MD, Chief Scientific Officer at OncoSec. "We're very excited to work with UC Davis, a pioneering institution in both human and veterinary medicine. This partnership is key to expanding our understanding of how ImmunoPulse™ IL-12 will address the unmet medical need of the human anti-PD-1 non-responder population and hopefully, provide a clinical benefit to the participating companion dogs."
The study is an open label, neoadjuvant two-arm pilot trial in approximately 12 canines with soft tissue sarcoma. Eligible canine patients will be randomized to receive one of the two experimental ImmunoPulse™ IL-12 treatment schedules, followed by definitive surgical resection of the tumor.
"We are pleased to begin our collaboration with OncoSec to evaluate potential immune responses in canine soft tissue sarcoma and compare results in two treatment schedules of pIL-12 electroporation," said Michael S. Kent, DVM, Associate Professor of Surgical & Radiological Sciences at UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and principal investigator of this study. "We anticipate OncoSec's intratumoral immunotherapy platform will trigger a programmatic change in otherwise suppressive antigen-presenting cells within the tumor and result in the activation of CD8+ T-cells."
"Since OncoSec treatments are DNA-based, we can easily encode canine sequences in our plasmids, allowing us to 'double-down' and investigate these compounds as anti-cancer therapies in canines, while seizing the opportunity to understand the mechanism of these agents in 'real' spontaneously occurring tumors in canine patients," added Dr. Pierce. "In my opinion, clinical investigation of cancer therapeutics – especially immunotherapies – in spontaneous tumors in companion animals is an underutilized, high-yield translational medicine approach."
To date, OncoSec's core immunotherapy platform, ImmunoPulse™, has been used to deliver DNA-based IL-12 in Phase II clinical trials for metastatic melanoma and Merkel cell carcinoma and plans to initiate Phase II studies in head and neck cancer and triple negative breast cancer.
