Oncolytics Biotech Inc T.ONC

AACR 2024 : Cancer vaccines get reintroduction with pathway

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April 10, 2024 - A session at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting posed a key question: Are cancer vaccines ready for prime time?

If you ask Scott Kopetz, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, the answer is a quick yes.

“I think they are. They’re ready,” Kopetz said in an interview with Fierce Biotech. His many titles include being deputy chair for translational research for the GI medical oncology department at the Houston hospital. 

A quick clarification on what exactly a cancer vaccine is. This is not a shot in the arm that is going to prevent any random person from ever getting disease—although that would certainly be nice. Kopetz describes the cancer vaccines that are coming through the clinic now as an adjuvant treatment that can spur a T-cell response.

Now, modalities like mRNA are helping spur more effective T-cell activation and allowing effective studies to be run, according to Kopetz. [pelareorep is a mRNA virus]

Much of the focus at AACR was on pancreatic cancer, where Kopetz said there’s a perfect matchup of an unmet need, minimum residual disease and a patient population that is prone to recurrence after surgery. This environment provides a good place to test out an adjuvant like a cancer vaccine.

BioNTech drew a crowd for its presentation, no doubt due to the fame garnered from the German company's COVID-19 vaccine. Kopetz said the rise of mRNA is one of the reasons cancer vaccines have come back into the mainstream. The new technology has changed the game. 

Geneos CEO Niranjan Sardesai, Ph.D. wanted to know more about why the vaccines are driving efficacy, so, in a paper published in Nature Medicine this week, the company examined the characteristics of the immune response. The analysis tracked the complete vaccination to clinical response cycle, showing a T-cell response that can be detected in the blood [as ONCY is demonstrating with pelareorep].

https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/aacr-24-cancer-vaccines-get-reintroduction-technology-finally-comes-together

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" Presenting at AACR’s Sunday press conference, hepatopancreatobiliary surgeon Vinod Balachandran, M.D., said the T-cell challenge is fourfold: to identify optimal antigens that are both tumor specific and immunogenic and to find a modular delivery platform that can address a rapidly evolving population of clones in patients that are fit enough and to sustain high magnitude tumor-specific T

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ONCY's pelareorep is the only dsRNA OV to be able to address the fourfold T- cell challenge: being both tumor specific and immunogenic and offering a modular delivery platform that can address a rapidly evolving population of clones in patients that are fit enough and to sustain high magnitude tumor-specific T cells.  Then by employing biomarkers and surrogate endpoints in Orphan

[Noteable]

Should read: " ... ONCY's pelareorep is appearing as the right "vaccine", at the right time, particularly now that cancer "vaccines" have regained significant attention from the immuno-oncology ecosystem,.."

[Noteable]

For the jokers that weakly complain from the back-seat by asking " are we there yet?" ... cancer "vaccines", like ONCY's OV pelareorep, have regained significant interest from the oncology clinical practitioner community and "vaccines" were the focus of talk at this week's AACR 2024 meeting in San Diego.

[Azzak34]

It's when the Charlie's Angel's basher crew come out en masses to find something negative about this news that you know they're panicking.  If you're not on board now you're going to be clamoring to get in with every other late comer when the hammer drops.  Might start looking at boats. 

[Quentin30]

News they know nothing about.. LOL... come on wazzak, you can do better than that. I attend Type C meetings as part of my role...  chump... So I think I'd have a clue as to timelines, and what is going on... ONCY probably doesn't have a confirmed biomarker yet... or one assessed by FDA. Being able to separate non-responders from (potential) responders up front has always been hoped

[Noteable]

April 18, 2024 - AACR2024 reports that biotech has emerged from a "nuclear winter" in biotech which lasted 2 years and affected the funding environment for most biotech companies. In contrast ONCY was able to raise the funding necessary to continue advancing its "vaccine" platform asset pelareorep towards pivotal registration studies that putatively will result in the FDA'

[Noteable]

April 10, 2024 - A session at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting posed a key question: Are cancer vaccines ready for prime time? If you ask Scott Kopetz, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, the answer is a quick yes. Much of the focus at AACR was on pancreatic cancer  

[Noteable]

April 12, 2024 - " ..... a few key themes became apparent at the American Association for Cancer Research’s annual meeting [AACR24].  First and foremost, the programs presented are tackling difficult cancers with a high unmet need and a dire prognosis. Some of the presentations last weekend involved drug candidates targeting pancreatic cancer, for example. In 2023, the five

[Noteable]

Background on OV + ICI posted in October 2023 which illustrates the reinvigorated interest in cancer "vaccines" as the future of cancer therapies. https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/cancer-currents-blog/2023/oncolytic-virus-blocking-tgf-beta

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Perspectives: Although 5 decades of research have yielded many failures, "vaccines"; such as ONCY's platfrom drug pelareorep, are now positioned for success for several reasons. Compared to prior decades, it is now clear that (1) T cells can treat (and, in some instances, cure) patients with cancer, as seen with CAR T cells and bispecific T cell engagers; 2) patients'

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April 07, 2024 - AACR 2024 highlights - Immune response to cancer vaccine for pancreatic cancer continue to correlate with clinical benefit. The mRNA vaccine autogene cevumeran in combination with Roche's atezolizumab and modified Folfirinox led to the expansion of multiple CD8+ T cell clones in the eight responding patients—98% of which were not present in blood, tumors, or adjacent tissue