Trial of pancreatic-cancer vaccine
expands ------------------------------------------- Antigenics of New York
has expanded its phase-1/2 trial of Oncophage, a vaccine for pancreatic
cancer, to include survival as an endpoint. Three of five original patients
from the phase-1 trial in 1997 remain alive and two have no evidence of the
disease. Five more patients will be enrolled in the trial, taking place at
New York’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. The vaccine is
patient- specific and uses heat-shock proteins to activate immune responses.
According to the company, Oncophage is also being evaluated for kidney
cancer, sarcoma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, gastric cancer, colon cancer, and
melanoma.
