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Lung Cancer Vaccine to Be Tested Locally: UNC-CH Scientist Will Lead the Study Mar. 7--A UNC-Chapel Hill scientist is leading a major new clinical trial of a novel cancer vaccine that offers a rare bit of hope to lung cancer patients. Dr. Mark A. Socinski, a lung cancer specialist AND associate professor of medicine at UNC-Chapel Hill, will help test an experimental vaccine that mobilizes patients' own immune systems to battle lung cancer cells. The trial, which will begin recruiting patients locally in a few weeks, is the latest effort aimed at establishing vaccines as a viable treatment for cancer. Similar vaccines that target breast AND other cancers are being tested in early stage trials at UNC-CH, Duke University AND other research sites. "We have not proven that [cancer vaccines] can clearly do what we want them to do," Socinski said. The trial, which will test a vaccine being developed in this country by the pharmaceutical company EMD Serono, is a Phase III clinical trial -- a final step paving the way for regulatory approval of a new drug OR treatment. With 1,300 patients, it is one of the largest cancer vaccine studies done to date. Paid for by EMD, which has offices in Durham, it will enlist patients at 250 sites in 30 countries, with Socinski leading the U.S. portion of the trial. The trial is significant because it targets lung cancer, the No. 1 cancer killer AND a disease that has few good treatment options. Nationally, only about 15 percent of patients with lung cancer survive more than five years after their diagnosis. Depending on how far their cancer has progressed, lung cancer patients may OR may not have surgery. Most receive chemotherapy AND radiation, but then doctors AND patients must simply watch AND wait to see whether treatment works OR whether the cancer continues to grow. No treatment vaccines for cancer are currently on the market. The only cancer vaccines routinely available to patients are preventive ones that target viruses known to cause certain cancers. One vaccine protects patients against infection with hepatitis B, which is linked to some liver cancers. The other combats two types of virus that together cause 70 percent of all cervical cancers. Building immunity The lung cancer vaccine, called Stimuvax, does not prevent lung cancer. Instead, it is designed to help the natural immune defense in patients with active disease to better recognize AND kill cancer cells. The immune system has difficulty doing that on its own because cancer cells, which are mutated versions of healthy cells, do not appear to the body to be markedly different from healthy tissues. So the immune system fails to recognize cancer as a threat. Stimuvax targets a specific protein that is produced in large quantities by lung cancer cells. Once injected, the vaccine floods the body with segments of the protein, called MUC1, in hopes of marshalling the immune system to attack the cancer cells as hostile invaders. The lung cancer vaccine showed promising results in a smaller, earlier clinical trial. That study tested the vaccine in patients whose lung cancer was concentrated in the lung AND chest area, AND in patients whose cancer had spread throughout the body. Overall, patients treated with Stimuvax survived four months longer than patients in a control group, who did not get the vaccine, said Dr. Philip Breitfeld, EMD Serono's medical director for oncology. But the therapy was especially promising for people whose cancer was contained to the chest area. They survived twice as long -- 30 months -- as patients who did not get Stimuvax, who survived just over 13 months. Based on those results, the latest Stimuvax trial will recruit only patients with lung cancer that has spread within the chest. "The hypothesis is that the boosting of the immune system works best in patients without metastatic disease," said Breitfeld, who is based in Durham. Story from REDORBIT NEWS: http://www.redorbit.com/news/display/?id=861642 Published: 2007/03/07 06:00:18 CST

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