On December 6, 2021 Cancer Advances, Inc., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing therapeutics for gastrointestinal cancers, reported a new publication in Frontiers in Oncology, section Gastrointestinal Cancers: Gastric & Esophageal Cancers (Press release, Cancer Advances, DEC 6, 2021, View Source [SID1234597367]).

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The gastrointestinal peptide gastrin has been shown to stimulate growth of gastric cancer through the cholecystokinin-B receptor (CCK-BR), a receptor that is expressed in at least 56.6% of human gastric cancers. The researchers evaluated the effects of PAS (Polyclonal Antibody Stimulator), a Phase 3 ready cancer vaccine that induces antibodies to gastrin, alone or in combination with a Programed Death-1 antibody (PD-1 Ab) in immune competent mice bearing YTN-16 gastric tumors.

Tumor growth was significantly slower than controls in PAS-treated mice, and tumor growth rate was decreased even more in combination-treated mice.
There were no metastases in any of the mice treated with PAS either alone or in combination with PD-1 Ab.
PAS monotherapy or combined with PD-1 Ab increased tumor CD8+ T-lymphocytes and decreased the number of immunosuppressive M2-polarized tumor-associated macrophages.
PAS monotherapy or combined with PD-1 Ab significantly decreased fibrosis in the tumor microenvironment.
These results show that the addition of PAS to therapy with an immune checkpoint antibody may decrease growth and metastases of gastric cancer by altering the tumor microenvironment and interrupting the autocrine pathway between gastrin and the CCKB receptor.

The study was conducted in collaboration with the manuscript’s lead author, Jill P. Smith, MD, professor of medicine and oncology at Georgetown University Medical Center, through a sponsored agreement with Cancer Advances, Inc. Cancer Advances plans to seek approval for PAS in the treatment of gastric and pancreatic cancers.

Link to publication:
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fonc.2021.788875/full