On February 20, 2018 Heat Biologics, Inc. ("Heat") (Nasdaq: HTBX), a biopharmaceutical company developing drugs designed to activate a patient’s immune system against cancer, reported that it has received a recommendation by the Independent Data Monitoring Committee (DMC) to continue patient enrollment of its ongoing Phase 2 Clinical Trial for HS-110 and nivolumab for the treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) (Press release, Heat Biologics, FEB 20, 2018, View Source [SID1234524070]).

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The recommendation follows the first of several planned DMC meetings that took place on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, to discuss the continued development of the trial.

"We believe that the continued advisement from an independent, unbiased committee of expert clinicians will help guide us to select the most appropriate patient population to include in a registrational trial for NSCLC," said CEO of Heat, Jeff Wolf. "We look forward to expanding enrollment to additional patient cohorts who may benefit from our therapy."

To-date, 35 adenocarcinoma patients with no prior history with checkpoint inhibitors have been treated with the HS-110/nivolumab combination. Further enrollment is expected to also include patients with squamous cell histology as well as those who have relapsed after checkpoint inhibitor therapy.

Heat will be hosting an analyst and investor event in New York City on February 28, 2018, at 8 a.m. ET, to discuss data generated from the first 35 patients enrolled in this trial. Event details and webcast information to be provided prior to the event.