On November 14, 2016 Provectus Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTCQB: PVCT, www.provectusbio.com), a clinical-stage oncology and dermatology biopharmaceutical company ("Provectus" or the "Company"), reported the presentation of data on PV-10 at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) (Free SITC Whitepaper) 2016 Annual Meeting (Press release, Provectus Pharmaceuticals, NOV 14, 2016, View Source [SID1234516603]).
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The abstract for the presented data, titled "Intralesional Injection with Rose Bengal and Systemic Chemotherapy Induces Anti-Tumor Immunity in a Murine Model of Pancreatic Cancer," poster 264, is available at
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Dr. Shari Pilon-Thomas, Associate Member, Department of Immunology, Moffitt Cancer Center, presented the poster on Saturday, November 12, 2016. The published abstract concludes that, in the murine model studied, "Regression of untreated pancreatic tumors by IL injection of PV-10 in concomitant tumor supports the induction of a systemic anti-tumor response. Addition of [Gemcitabine] chemotherapy enhances the effects of IL PV-10 therapy." The presented poster concludes that, "These results may warrant a clinical trial to evaluate the combination of IL PV-10 with gemcitabine in metastatic pancreatic cancer patients."
Eric Wachter, Ph.D., Chief Technology Officer of Provectus, noted, "According to statistics from the American Cancer Society, pancreatic cancer has grown from 33,730 new cases in the U.S. in 2006 to 53,070 new cases expected in 2016. Over the same period, deaths increased from 32,300 to 41,780, and this is now the 4th most common cause of cancer death in men and women alike. The 5-year overall survival rate is 8%. Thus, this is an area in oncology with a large and growing unmet need."
Wachter continued, "The work reported by Pilon-Thomas and colleagues shows that PV-10 has therapeutic activity in murine models of pancreatic cancer, and that this is augmented when intralesional PV-10 is combined with systemic gemcitabine (GEM), a standard chemotherapeutic agent used to treat this disease. Supporting this observation, their poster showed that PV-10 elicited interferon-gamma production, a hallmark of the induction of an anti-tumor immune response, along with regression of uninjected bystander tumors. They also showed that myeloid derived suppressor cells (MDSC) decreased when GEM was used alone or in combination with PV-10. Since MDSC have an inhibitory effect on a number of immune effector cells, including CD8+ T cells, dendritic cells and NK T cells, the apparent combination effect could result from reduced immune suppression by GEM coupled with immunologic stimulation by PV-10. PV-10 has previously been shown to produce tumor-specific anti-tumor immune responses in melanoma and colorectal carcinoma that includes activation of CD8+ T cells."
Wachter concluded, "We agree with the conclusions of the poster, that these results warrant clinical testing. Since pancreatic cancer frequently metastasizes to the liver, this could be a logical extension of our current investigations of PV-10 administered percutaneously to hepatic tumors."
The SITC (Free SITC Whitepaper) 2016 Annual Meeting was held at the Gaylord National Hotel & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, November 9-13, 2016.