On November 5, 2019 Heat Biologics, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTBX), a biopharmaceutical company developing immunotherapies designed to activate a patient’s immune system against cancer, reported that an abstract has been posted on The Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) (Free SITC Whitepaper)’s (SITC) (Free SITC Whitepaper) website in connection with the Company’s planned poster presentation at SITC (Free SITC Whitepaper)’s 34th Annual Meeting on November 8, 2019 (Press release, Heat Biologics, NOV 5, 2019, View Source [SID1234550287]).
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The abstract summarizes the latest interim top line data from Cohort B of the Company’s Phase 2 trial of the Company’s "off-the-shelf" cell-based therapy, HS-110, in combination with Opdivo (Nivolumab) in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), which completed enrollment in July 2019. This cohort enrolled patients who had previously received a checkpoint inhibitor (CPI) and whose disease had subsequently progressed. The data suggests that re-challenging the immune system with nivolumab and HS-110 after checkpoint inhibitor treatment failure may restore responsiveness and clinical benefit. Additionally, the combination of HS-110 and nivolumab is well-tolerated, and no increase in the incidence of immune-related adverse events was observed to date, as compared to CPI monotherapy. The full abstract is available at: View Source
Jeff Wolf, Heat Biologics’ CEO, commented, "NSCLC patients who progressed after checkpoint inhibitor treatment have limited therapeutic options. The latest results are encouraging and suggest that HS-110 in combination with nivolumab may address this key unmet medical need. As of this data cut, the median overall survival (OS) is estimated to be 11.8 months, with 70% of the patients still alive. I am unaware of any published checkpoint combination studies that offered superior OS in patients that had experienced previous checkpoint inhibitor treatment failure in NSCLC. This data also compares favorably to reported studies using chemotherapy following checkpoint inhibitor progression 1, 2 ".
Signals of clinical efficacy were observed in the reported objective response rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR) and progression free survival (PFS). Importantly, patients experiencing dermal injection site reactions (ISR) had statistically significant improvement in PFS and OS compared to those without ISR (Hazard Ratio = 0.40, p=0.0068 and Hazard Ratio = 0.16, p=0.0005, respectively). Additional data will be presented at SITC (Free SITC Whitepaper) on November 8 ,2019.
Details of Heat Biologics’ poster presentation:
Abstract Title: Treating advanced non-small lung cancer (NSCLC) patients after checkpoint inhibitor treatment failure with a novel combination of Viagenpumatucel-L (HS-110) plus nivolumab
Poster #: P411
Date: Friday, November 8, 2019, 7am – 8pm (Eastern Time)
Location: Gaylord National Hotel & Convention Center, Washington DC
References:
1 Costantini A, Corny J, Fallet V et al. Efficacy of next treatment received after nivolumab progression in patients with advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer. ERJ Open Res. 2018 Apr 20;4(2).
2 Schvartsman G, Peng SA, Bis G, et al. Response rates to single-agent chemotherapy after exposure to immune checkpoint inhibitors in advanced non-small cell lung cancer. Lung Cancer. 2017 Oct;112:90-95.