Vaccination with TPIV 100 boosts T-cell immunity to HER2 in HER2+ Breast Cancer Patients
Provides catalyst to start Phase II studies
TapImmune, Inc. (TPIV), a clinical-stage onco-immunology company specializing in the development of innovative peptide and gene-based immunotherapeutics and vaccines for the treatment of cancer & metastatic disease, today presented new data at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium in the poster titled, "Robust generation of T-cell immunity to HER2 in HER2+ breast cancer patients with a degenerate subdominant HLA-DR epitope vaccine." The poster was co-authored by Dr. Wilson, Dr. Knutson, Dr Degnim and other researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota and presented by Dr. Glynn Wilson of TapImmune and Dr. Amy Degnim MD of the Mayo Clinic.
Results showing that 90% of patients produce robust T-cell immunity suggest that TPIV 100 may be useful in several therapeutic applications including: prevention of disease recurrence when administered following standard-of-care treatment in women with no evidence of disease; administered as a combination therapy including in HER2 metastatic patients; and used before surgery to potentially induce tumor regression.
"These encouraging data provide the rationale and catalyst for TapImmune to start Phase II clinical trials on TPIV 100," stated Dr. Glynn Wilson, Chairman and CEO of TapImmune. "There is a clear and unmet need for more efficacious treatment in a larger population of HER2+ breast cancer patients and the data show TPIV 100 has the potential to address this need through several different therapeutic applications, pre, post and in conjunction with current standard of care treatments."
These data show the Phase I results on TPIV 100, a vaccine containing 4 Class II HER2neu antigens. In summary, vaccination generates T-cell immunity to naturally processed HER2neu antigens. Responses to the individual peptide antigens was high (ranging from 68-88%), which led to the majority (90%) of patients generating T-cells that recognized naturally processed antigens, a clear improvement over previous vaccines with more limited utility. Elevated T-cell frequency to HER2 was observed 3 months after the last vaccination demonstrating memory immunity. Antibody immunity to HER2 was modestly increased in vaccinated patients.
About TapImmune Inc.
TapImmune Inc. is an immunotherapy company specializing in the development of innovative technologies for the treatment of cancer, including metastasis, and infectious disease. The Company's peptide or nucleic acid-based immunotherapeutics, comprise one or multiple naturally processed epitopes (NPEs) designed to comprehensively stimulate a patients' killer T-cells, helper T-cells and to restore or further augment antigen presentation by using proprietary nucleic acid-based expression systems. The Company's technologies may be used as stand-alone medications or in combination with current treatment modalities.
