Canadian-based biopharmaceutical company Immunovaccine has started dosing patients in a Phase Ib/II trial of its vaccine DPX-E7 for the treatment of incurable human papillomavirus (HPV) related oropharyngeal, cervical and anal cancers.

Stand Up To Cancer and the Farrah Fawcett Foundation has granted $1.5m to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to carry out the trial as a part of its collaborative translational research on HPV-related cancers.

DPX-E7 is an investigational vaccine candidate that employs patented DepoVax platform and targets an HPV viral protein called E7.

The single-centre, open label, non-randomised Phase Ib/II trial is designed to evaluate the safety and clinical efficacy of DPX-E7 and low-dose metronomic oral cyclophosphamide combination in 44 subjects.

"It is also an important step forward in developing therapies for the high-risk HPV infections that have been linked to cancers associated with poor patient outcomes."

Immunovaccine chief executive officer Frederic Ors said: "Because DPX-E7 is formulated with the same DepoVax platform technology as our DPX-Survivac candidate, this trial further demonstrates the broad applicability of DepoVax to deliver cancer antigens appropriately.

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"It is also an important step forward in developing therapies for the high-risk HPV infections that have been linked to cancers associated with poor patient outcomes.

"We are pleased to be working with the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in this endeavor, and we look forward to continuing to fully leverage our platform's potential to address high unmet medical needs, delivering more options to patients and creating more opportunities to generate value for our shareholders."

The trial's primary objective is assessment of changes in CD8+ T-cells present in peripheral blood and tumour tissue, and to determine the safety of the vaccination in HPV-related incurable head and neck, cervical or anal cancer patients who are HLA-A2 positive.


Image: Phase Ib/II trial for HPV-related cancers. Photo: courtesy of Praisaeng/FreeDigitalPhotos.net.