French biotech company OSE Immunotherapeutics on Monday presented positive results for its therapeutic vaccine Tedopi in patients with advanced lung cancer, demonstrating a reduced risk of death compared to chemotherapy.
“One year after the start of treatment, 44.1% of these patients were still alive in the vaccine group, compared to only 27.5% in the chemotherapy group,” according to the results of a clinical trial by phase 3 (stage preceding commercialization). which were published on Monday in the magazine Annals of oncology.
“The study also shows that the vaccine, instead of chemotherapy, allows patients to maintain a better quality of life” and “fewer side effects,” indicates Professor Benjamin Besse, director of clinical research at the Gustave-Roussy Institute and researcher. major. of the trial called Atalante-1.
“A new hope”
These results “allow us to glimpse new hope for these patients,” declared the CEO of Ose Immunotherapeutics, Nicolas Poirier, during an online press conference, highlighting that more than a thousand injections have been applied during the various clinical studies.
Therapeutic cancer vaccines aim to educate the immune system to specifically recognize and destroy tumor cells. The Tedopi vaccine is effective in patients with the HLA-A2 gene, present in half of the population, highlights Ose Immunotherapeutics.
Patients participating in the randomized trial were previously treated with chemotherapy and immunotherapy.
219 participants
“The study did not complete its recruitment” due to the arrival of Covid-19 and therefore “does not have the desired power”, but “it allows us to understand which population really benefits” from the vaccine, that is, the patients who initially responded . to immunotherapy before relapse, Professor Besse said.
A total of 219 patients participated in the study in nine European countries and the United States (139 patients with Tedopi and 80 with chemotherapy). The vaccine was initially administered every three weeks, then every eight weeks for a year, and then every 12 weeks.
Source: BFM TV
