On November 23, 2024 TME Pharma N.V. (Euronext Growth Paris: ALTME), a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing novel therapies for treatment of cancer by targeting the tumor microenvironment (TME), reported the presentation of a poster featuring NOX-A12 data from preclinical studies performed at the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) at the 2024 Society for Neuro-Oncology (SNO) Annual Meeting, taking place in Houston, Texas, USA, November 21-24, 2024 (Press release, TME Pharma, NOV 23, 2024, View Source [SID1234648583]).
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The presentation showed that combining CXCL12 inhibition with anti-PD-1/CTLA4 immune checkpoint inhibition increases the presence of anti-cancer immune cells in tumor tissues both inside and outside the brain, including activated cytotoxic ("killer") T cells. Importantly, improved long-term survival and immunological protection from tumor recurrence were seen in models of tumors growing outside but not inside the brain. This suggests that while the combination with anti-PD-1/CTLA4 immune checkpoint inhibitors is a promising therapy for tumors outside the brain, it may not be an optimal approach for treating brain tumors.
These results support the different combination strategies pursued by TME Pharma in both brain and pancreas cancer. In pancreas cancer, a tumor originating outside the brain, NOX-A12 is combined with an anti-PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitor and chemotherapy. In brain cancer (glioblastoma), TME Pharma pursues a different strategy combining NOX-A12 with anti-VEGF therapy and radiotherapy, which has already shown exceptional efficacy in animal models (100% complete response1) and in the GLORIA clinical trial where a statistically significant survival benefit over a matched standard of care cohort was shown with a doubling of median overall survival from 9.5 to 19.9 months2.
"The presented results confirm the activity of NOX-A12 on the tumor microenvironment and support TME Pharma’s strategy to focus on combination with the VEGF inhibitor bevacizumab in brain cancer that has yielded excellent results in newly diagnosed chemotherapy-resistant patients with residual tumor remaining after surgery," said Aram Mangasarian, CEO of TME Pharma. "The survival benefit shown at the SNO conference for the NOX-A12 combination with anti-PD1/CTLA4 immune checkpoint inhibitors suggests potential to treat multiple tumor types outside the central nervous system and supports our plans to combine NOX-A12 with the anti-PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab and chemotherapy in the OPTIMUS pancreatic cancer study."
The research was conducted at the NCI, part of the National Institutes of Health, under the material transfer agreement established with TME Pharma in June 2022 to explore the effects of TME Pharma’s CXCL12 inhibitor NOX-A12 in brain tumors.3
Details of the poster presentation at the 2024 SNO Annual Meeting are as follows:
Title: Potentiating the efficacy of immune check-point inhibitors in glioblastoma by inhibition of CXCL12
Presenter: Dr. Chen Cam-El Makranz, Neuro-Oncology Research Fellow, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health
Session: Poster Session, Poster number EXTH12
Time and Date: 7.30-9.30 p.m. CST, Friday, November 22, 2024
The abstract and poster presentation are available on the TME Pharma website.