RE:RE:RE:RE:AstraZeneca's ADC disappoints - on severe adverse eventsRepost - Further to the potential of ONCY's pelareorep in combination with PD-(L)1 and ADCs, it is important to consider that tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), reflect the local tumor microenvironment and may prove to be a superior endpoint in cancer vaccine/oncolytic virus trials.
As outlined earlier, TILs are lymphocytes that have left the bloodstream, migrated to a tumor, and are at the right time able to recognize and kill cancerous cells . At the site of the tumor, subsets of TILs interact with each other and with other immunologically active cells in complex, symbiotic, and antagonistic ways to form the TME. ONCY's pelareorep is able to increase CelTils scores as outlined in the Aware-1 clinical study, thus remodeling the TME for the sequential addition of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs).
And on January 13, 2024 an independent Chinese study concluded that in HER2 low breast cancer patients, where the ADC Enhertu has been approved, TiLs were less expressed than otherwise, thus making immune checkpoint inhibitors (anti-PD-(L)1) less effective than if the Tils were significantly expressed, as ONCY's pelareorep is able to effect.
Consequently, ONCY has identified the importance of TILs, which is underscored by the developing ability to predict treatment response to ICI therapy (predictive/prognostic biomarkers) based on their density and location, which ONCY has demonstrated in their clinical trials. The value of a change in TILs within the TME as a response to cancer immunotherapy has also been demonstrated with immune checkpoint inhibition where an increase in TILs after treatment is prognostic, correlating with an improved survival outcome. ONCY measured the value change of TILs through the use of immunoscores like those used in ONCY's Aware-1 clinical study.