The results of a just-completed Phase 1 study reveal that the combination of cancer vaccine galinpepimut-S and the immunotherapy drug Opdivo® delivered both of its primary endpoints: the treatment was revealed to be both safe and effective, delivering significant improvements in overall survival.
Targeted Combination Treatment Extends Mesothelioma Survival
The mesothelioma researchers set out to see whether the drug combination would be helpful in treating malignant pleural mesothelioma. Galinpepimut-S is a cancer vaccine that helps the body build an immune response to tumor cells. When it is combined with an immunotherapy drug with monoclonal antibodies like nivolumab, which remove signals that block immune system activity, the immune system is strengthened. It is thought that the vaccine may increase the immunotherapy drug’s signals.
According to a statement from SELLAS Life Sciences, mesothelioma patients treated with the combination of galinpepimut-S (GPS) and the checkpoint inhibitor nivolumab demonstrated a 70.3-week median overall survival compared to 28.3 weeks in patients with relapsed/refractory disease who were treated with standard of care. The median overall survival of patients without GPS Immune Response was 9.0 Months compared to 27.8 Months for those with GPS-specific immune response: This represents a 208.3% increase in survival time.
Pharmaceutical Company Executives Express Optimism for Mesothelioma Treatment
Following the news of these remarkable results for the mesothelioma patients who enrolled in the Phase 1 study, Angelos Stergiou, M.D., Sc.D. h.c., President and CEO, SELLAS said, “We are excited that in a bulky, measurable disease setting, such as in this relapsed/refractory advanced mesothelioma study, we have observed yet again strong GPS-specific immune responses which appear to be correlated with significant survival benefit in patients when combined with checkpoint inhibitors, a more than 200% survival benefit.”
Dr. Stergiou went on to say, “As we had hypothesized in the past, this increase in survival appears to be consistent with long-term immunity-mediated antitumor effect with our immunotherapy combination as we had seen in other studies with GPS, and, importantly, the positive survival outcomes seen in this study are accompanied with a safety profile which is similar to that of the checkpoint inhibitor alone. We believe that these observed survival benefits in the active disease setting further confirm the strong biological effect of GPS in even the most challenging settings where GPS seems to contribute to stopping the progression of extremely aggressive cancers and demonstrates its utility as a potentially effective combination therapy.”
If you or someone you love has been diagnosed with malignant pleural mesothelioma results like these offer real hope for a better prognosis. For more information, contact the Patient Advocates at Mesothelioma.net today at 1-800-692-8608.
