Phase 1 Study of a Cancer Vaccine to Treat Patients With Advanced Stage Ovarian, Fallopian or Peritoneal Cancer

Immunotherapy is a novel way to treat cancer and does so by targeting the immune system to destroy tumor cells. Many different therapeutic vaccines have been evaluated in phase 1, 2, and even phase 3 trials. Much has been learned about the principles of applying immune-based therapies and specifically the types of patients that may be most likely to mount an effective immune response. When used alone, cancer vaccines may have their greatest impact earlier in the disease course or in situations with minimal residual disease. ImmunoVaccine Technologies Inc. (Immunovaccine) is an immuno-oncology company developing a novel adjuvanting technology platform termed DepoVax. DepoVax was created to enhance the speed, strength and duration of an immune response. The peptide antigens included in DPX-Survivac are designed to target Survivin, a protein which is over-expressed in many cancer types, including epithelial ovarian cancers. This study was designed be a phase 1-2 trial to determine the safety and immunogenicity profiles of DPX-Survivac, a therapeutic vaccine co-administered with a regimen of low dose oral cyclophosphamide. The dosing-finding phase 1 study of 15 subjects would move directly into a randomized phase 2 study. However, with the evolving field of immunotherapy Immunovaccine has begun to focus on combination therapies, combining DPX-Survivac treatment with checkpoint inhibitors and other immune modulators, such as in NCT02785250.