Immunovaccine to Begin Therapeutic Vaccine Trial Against DLBCL

The Halifax, Canada based company will launch a phase II clinical trial in the coming months to evaluate its DPX-Survivac therapeutic vaccine for the treatment of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL).

The clinical trial will assess the efficacy of DPX-Survivac combined with oral cyclophosphamide among patients with recurrent DLBCL.

"We have outlined a clinical development strategy designed to generate meaningful data supporting the therapeutic benefit of DPX-Survivac in multiple cancer types with important unmet treatment needs," said company CEO Marc Mansour in a news release. "We are excited to initiate this trial in recurrent lymphoma, as well as studies in other cancer types, in the coming quarters."

The enrollment goal is 24 patients and the hope is that the first patient will receive treatment by the early part of 2015.

“There is a clear and important unmet medical need in this area of lymphoma management and we are eager to evaluate the potential of this combination therapy to deliver clinical benefit to those patients," added Dr. Neil Berinstein, medicine professor at the University of Toronto and medical oncologist at the Odette-Sunnybrook Cancer Centre.

DPX-Survivac is based on the company's patented DepoVax platform, which provides controlled and prolonged exposure of antigens and adjuvant to the immune system. They foresee clinical trials of this therapeutic vaccine against both brain cancer and ovarian cancer in the future.

Source: The Chronicle Herald