Health - Reuters

Antigenics Says Cancer Vaccine May Extend Survival
Mon Aug 18, 7:54 PM ET
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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Biotechnology company Antigenics Inc. said on
Monday its experimental cancer vaccine improved survival in 52
percent of advanced colon cancer patients who responded to the drug
in a small mid-stage clinical trial.
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Antigenics, based in New York, said all of the 15 patients who
responded immunologically to the vaccine, called Oncophage, were
alive two years after treatment, compared with 50 percent of the 14
patients who did not respond. The disease-free survival rate was 51
percent for responders and 8 percent for non-responders. Typically,
patients with advanced colon cancer can expect to live for up to a
year, said Garo Armen, chief executive of Antigenics. "These results
are not randomized, but in all the patients who showed an immune
response, there has been a trend toward benefit in our clinical
trials," he said. Oncophage is a personalized vaccine derived from an
individual patient's tumor. Because the injected drug contains the
patient's own genetic codes, it is believed to be more effective in
reprogramming the immune system to attack the cancer without side
effects. The vaccine is being studied in a range of cancers,
including kidney, pancreatic, skin and gastric cancers. The first
pivotal-stage data on Oncophage is expected later this year with
preliminary results from a Phase 3 kidney cancer trial, Armen said.
In that study, patients who have had their cancer surgically removed
are either being treated with the vaccine or simply observed, which
is the standard of care for patients with that stage of kidney
cancer, the CEO explained. Initial results will be compiled when 80
to 100 of the 600 or so participants have had their cancer return,
Armen said. Patients who do relapse are then offered chemotherapy
drugs or other toxic therapies. If the results are promising,
Antigenics would expect to file for U.S. Food and Drug Administration
(news - web sites) approval of the vaccine in 2004, he added. "We are
encouraged with the collective data -- all pointing to the fact that
there may be efficacy," Armen said. Data from the 29-patient colon
cancer study was published in the Aug. 15 issue of Clinical Cancer
Research.