Immunovaccine, a clinical-stage vaccine company, announced that its DepoVax adjuvanting technology will underlie the design of a new cancer vaccine trial for the treatment of head and neck cancer (HNC).
The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston has received a $1.2 million research grant for the clinical evaluation of DepoVax, according to the company.
The three-year grant will be used to fund a phase I clinical trial of the group's peptide cancer antigen formulated in DepoVax in patients with human papillomavirus (HPV)-related HNC and cervical cancer.
The grant was awarded based on a proposal highlighting the potential of Dana-Farber's proposed cancer antigen identified by a new mass spectrometry method named Poisson detection MS and the DepoVax platform. The DepoVax data focused on clinical trial results with DPX-Survivac, which demonstrated strong immune response activity in cancer patients and the immune enhancement observed with the immune modulating agent cyclophosphamide, the company said.
Dana-Farber's proposed phase I study in HPV-related cancers will use the same approach, formulating the institute's peptide-based vaccine in DepoVax and administering it to patients in combination with cyclophosphamide.
