Defence Therapeutics Inc. has announced the successful completion of a pre-clinical vaccination trial utilising its ARM-002TM vaccine against pancreatic cancer.
The groundbreaking study revealed the vaccine’s significant therapeutic efficacy, particularly when combined with the anti-PD-1 immune-checkpoint inhibitor.
Addressing the challenge of pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer presents a formidable challenge in oncology due to its often late diagnosis and limited treatment options.
Typically, symptoms do not manifest until the disease has metastasised, classifying pancreatic cancer as a ‘hard-to-treat’ cancer. Patients facing this diagnosis encounter a narrow range of treatment avenues, necessitating innovative approaches like immunotherapy.
Current treatment landscape
Standard treatments for pancreatic cancer, including surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, offer limited clinical benefits and often come with significant life-related complications.
Even surgeries to remove the pancreas necessitate lifelong medication to replace essential pancreatic functions. Chemotherapy, while capable of shrinking tumours, is frequently associated with resistance and relapse.
Given the shortcomings of conventional treatments, immunotherapy emerges as a promising avenue in the fight against pancreatic cancer. By harnessing the body’s immune system to target cancer cells, immunotherapy offers a potential breakthrough for patients who have exhausted traditional options.
Promising results in pre-clinical testing
In the in vivo pre-clinical study, Defence Therapeutics tested the ARM-002TM vaccine pulsed with a pancreatic cancer lysate in combination with the anti-PD-1 immune-checkpoint inhibitor in animals with pre-established Pan02 tumours.
The results were remarkable, with all treated animals surviving for over 40 days, a milestone equivalent to nearly five years on a human scale. Moreover, tumour growth in these animals was markedly impaired compared to other treatments, indicating the potency of the vaccine combination.
Sébastien Plouffe, the CEO and president of Defence Therapeutics, commented: “Defence’s goal is to bring our proprietary and innovative immune therapies to the clinical stage for the benefit of cancer patients.
“We often say that our Accum® platform is highly versatile as it can lead to the development of verticals promoting different products for multiple indications.
“This also applies to a single product as it can be adapted to various diseases as demonstrated with our ARM-002TM vaccine in vivo pre-clinical studies, which was shown to impair the growth of solid T-cell lymphoma, melanoma and now pancreatic cancer.”
The success of Defence’s pre-clinical trial marks a significant milestone in the quest to combat pancreatic cancer.
These compelling results underscore the potential of immunotherapy in addressing the challenges posed by hard-to-treat cancers like pancreatic cancer.
