On April 8, 2022 Oncolytics Biotech Inc. (NASDAQ: ONCY) (TSX: ONC) reported the publication of an electronic poster at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting featuring new clinical biomarker data from a completed investigator-sponsored phase 1b trial of pelareorep and the proteasome inhibitor bortezomib in relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma patients (Press release, Oncolytics Biotech, APR 8, 2022, View Source [SID1234611726]).
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"The results from this trial provide a powerful example of how pelareorep’s immunologic effects trigger a durable clinical benefit in an extremely challenging patient population," said Thomas Heineman, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Medical Officer of Oncolytics Biotech Inc. "All patients enrolled into the study had failed prior therapies, yet despite this, treatment with pelareorep-based therapy prevented disease progression for over three years in a subset of the patients. In addition, this study shows that pelareorep’s ability to recruit high concentrations of anti-cancer immune cells into the tumor microenvironment (TME) can yield strong clinical outcomes. This impressive finding has implications for cancers beyond multiple myeloma as it builds on existing data that support pelareorep’s potential to enhance the effectiveness of a wide array of therapies through its ability to stimulate a pro-inflammatory TME."
Previously reported data highlighted in the poster’s corresponding abstract demonstrated the efficacy of the studied combination and showed a subset of trial participants achieving prolonged progression-free survival (PFS) of greater than three years (link to PR). These data also demonstrate a clinical response correlating with changes in T cell clonality and post-treatment increases in innate and adaptive immune cells within the TME. New biomarker analyses featured in the poster show these anti-cancer immune cells clustering more closely around cancer cells containing pelareorep compared to those that did not. Collectively, these results indicate that the sustained clinical benefits observed were driven by pelareorep’s recruitment of anti-cancer immune cells into the TME.
Dr. Matt Coffey, President and Chief Executive Officer of Oncolytics Biotech Inc., commented, "This trial generated important proof-of-concept data that reaffirm pelareorep’s favorable safety profile, increase our understanding of its mechanism of action, and further support the use of T cell clonality as a biomarker. These important learnings strengthen the systemic effect observed in other datasets supporting each of our clinical programs and can be applied to accelerate their advancement. Moving forward, we plan to use our findings in multiple myeloma to drive conversations with potential partners and collaborators interested in leveraging pelareorep’s immunotherapeutic effects to address unmet needs in this and other indications. Internally, we remain primarily focused on our lead breast cancer program and look forward to its expected randomized phase 2 data readout in the fourth quarter of the year."
The electronic AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) poster, entitled, Single Cell Analysis Shows That Reovirus Immune Priming Changes the Tumor Immune Micro Environment in Multiple Myeloma, is available to registered attendees of the AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) annual meeting on the meeting website (Abstract #6354). A copy of the poster will also be posted to the Posters & Publications page of Oncolytics’ website (LINK) following the conclusion of the meeting.