On November 7, 2017 Genocea Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GNCA), a biopharmaceutical company developing neoantigen cancer vaccines, reported details on its three poster presentations at the upcoming Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) (Free SITC Whitepaper) 32nd Annual Meeting taking place November 8 to 12, 2017 at the Gaylord National Hotel & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland (Press release, Genocea Biosciences, NOV 7, 2017, View Source [SID1234521649]). The posters, all of which will be presented on Saturday, November 11, highlight the power of Genocea’s proprietary antigen identification system ATLAS to identify and profile CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses to neoantigens and tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) for potential use in cancer vaccines and as non-invasive biomarkers.
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"These data demonstrate the versatility of ATLAS and support our use of the technology in the development of next-generation neoantigen cancer vaccines," said Jessica Baker Flechtner, Ph.D., chief scientific officer at Genocea. "With our first personalized vaccine candidate expected to enter the clinic in 2018, we are excited that ATLAS continues to demonstrate superiority to in silico methods of neoantigen identification and believe that our ability to identify true neoantigens will be key to developing more effective immunotherapies. We are also eager to further explore, through partnerships, the potential of ATLAS in the identification of novel tumor-associated antigens for biomarkers and common antigen cancer vaccines."
Poster #430: "Neoantigen identification using ATLAS across multiple tumor types highlights limitations of prediction algorithms," will be presented during the session on Personalized Vaccines and Technologies/Personalized Medicine. Highlights include:
ATLAS identified true neoantigens of CD8+ and CD4+ T cells, independent of patient HLA type, across a broad cohort of patients with different tumor types, including those with high or low mutational burden
Cancer types studied include renal cell carcinoma, and prostate, colorectal, pancreatic, and non-small cell lung cancers
Only 4% of ATLAS-identified neoantigens were predicted by NetMHCpan (a widely used in silico tool for neoantigen prediction)
88% of neoantigens that were predicted by NetMHCpan and confirmed by ATLAS were inhibitory and thus questionable for inclusion in cancer vaccines
The identification of activating and inhibitory neoantigens for CD8+ and CD4+ T cells should better enable neoantigen vaccines to stimulate a protective immune response
Poster #8: "T cell response profiling in colorectal carcinoma patients reveals an enrichment in responses to specific tumor-associated antigens," will be presented during the session on Biomarkers and Immune Monitoring. Highlights include:
Tumor stage at time of diagnosis is considered to be the most important predictor of survival in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients; tumor-associated antigen (TAA)-specific responses in peripheral blood can be detected using ATLAS
ATLAS identified T cell responses to a subset of TAAs in individuals with pre-malignant adenomatous polyps that were similar to those in CRC patients and distinguishable from healthy individuals
Three TAAs that were most frequently identified in this cohort of patients were not aligned with those previously investigated as therapeutic vaccines
Data support investigation of this new set of TAAs as antigens for a novel vaccine to complement personalized cancer vaccine approaches
Data also support potential development of a non-invasive blood-based assay for early detection and diagnosis of CRC
Poster #28 entitled "Profiling of T cell responses to tumor-associated antigens in lung cancer patients treated with checkpoint inhibitors," will be presented during the session on Biomarkers and Immune Monitoring. Highlights include:
ATLAS identified both stimulatory and inhibitory CD8+ and CD4+ T cell responses to TAAs in lung cancer patients treated with checkpoint inhibitors
ATLAS confirmed two TAAs that elicited more frequent responses than NY-ESO-1, MUC1, and MAGEA3, three TAAs that have been studied previously in clinical trials as vaccine antigens for lung cancer patients
Data support investigation of these TAAs as antigens to include in a common-antigen immunotherapy for lung cancer
T cell response profiles associating with effective treatment with checkpoint blockade are under investigation