On February 3, 2020 OncoSec Medical Incorporated ("OncoSec") (Nasdaq: ONCS), a company developing late-stage intratumoral cancer immunotherapies, reported data from a feasibility study of its visceral lesion applicator (VLA) electroporation device that were presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Interventional Oncology (SIO) in New Orleans (Press release, OncoSec Medical, FEB 3, 2020, View Source [SID1234553763]). The study, which was awarded "Best Technology Scientific Abstract" at SIO, showed investigators were able to successfully and safely reach target organs located deep inside the body and deploy the device’s applicator tip in a large animal model.
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In the study, titled, "Novel Electroporation Device Platform Supports Controlled Delivery of Potent Immunotherapy Directly to Target Organs," healthy animal subjects were placed under general anesthesia while investigators safely and successfully accessed and deployed the VLA in the lungs with a flexible, catheter-based applicator using a bronchoscope and a steerable catheter, and liver using ultrasound-guided laparoscopy with a rigid-trocar-based applicator. Electroporation was performed in the liver using the APOLLO generator with no adverse effects recorded during or after electroporation. Additionally, initial data from the APOLLO generator’s built-in feedback system embedded within the platform detected and recorded trends in impedance values between different tissue types, as well as between the presence and absence of DNA. The APOLLO generator was also able to indicate when the applicator tip was not effectively placed within the tissue. These data highlight the safety mechanisms as well as the future possibility of differentiating between healthy tissue and a local tumor.
"These early feasibility trials are an important confirmation of our VLA platform and help to pave the way toward, initially, safety data to include in an investigational device exemption (IDE) application and eventually a Phase 1 safety trial in human subjects," said Daniel J. O’Connor, President and CEO of OncoSec. "It is an important step toward the development of our platform as a complete and dynamic treatment system that will allow us to continue to treat cancer in internal organs utilizing the electroporation of TAVO (plasmid-based interleukin-12) to eliminate cancer cells."