Characterization of Novel Vaccine Targeting Follicle-Stimulating Hormone Receptor in Ovarian Cancer
Abstract
Background: Ovarian cancer initially responds well to treatment, but comes back in a high number of patients. The time after treatment when there is no disease provides a great opportunity for vaccinating against the tumor to prevent its comeback. An active immune system against the tumor has several advantages. It is associated with longer survival of ovarian cancer patients, and it allows other immunotherapy (i.e., Keytruda) treatments to work. This immunotherapy has shown impressive results in other tumors, such as melanoma, but not in ovarian cancer because the immune system is poorly active against it. The follicle-stimulating hormone receptor (FSHR) is a protein expressed only in the ovaries (which are removed by surgery) and in 50-70% of ovarian cancer. We have generated a vaccine against FSHR and know already that it activates the immune system in mice and improves survival in mouse ovarian cancer. Objective: To improve survival of patients with ovarian cancer by: - Testing the FSHR vaccine in mice with human immune system and against human ovarian tumors. - Combining the vaccine with immunotherapy to attempt to make ovarian cancer more sensitive to this revolutionary treatment. Central problem and how it will affect ovarian cancer: The central problem we are focusing on is the poor immune system activation against ovarian cancer. We have seen an increase immune activation with our vaccines in cervical and head cancer. By increasing the immune activation against ovarian cancer, we should obtain two different benefits: - Increased survival: higher immune activation alone is associated with longer survival. - Improved other therapies against ovarian cancer: Immunotherapy has shown great survival increases in other tumors, but not in ovarian cancer, because it needs a high immune system activation against the tumor. Who will this help: This research program is aimed to help all women with ovarian cancer that expresses FSHR (50-70%). Potential clinical applications, benefits and risks: Our plan is to use this therapy in different ways. The more likely application in the short term is the treatment of patients right after surgery and chemotherapy to prevent the cancer from reoccurring and increase their survival. Another possible application is the treatment of tumor masses that affect the quality of life of patients, cannot be operated on, and are resistant to chemotherapy. If these tumors are FSHR+, we could use this vaccine to make these tumors smaller to attempt to improve the quality of life of these patients or eliminate them in combination with immunotherapy. Because FSHR is only expressed in the ovaries in healthy tissues and these are removed during initial surgery for ovarian cancer, we do not anticipate risks for the patients when they are treated with the FSHR vaccine. Potential impact in the health of women: We expect this research to have a direct impact on the health of military women, their families, and all women with ovarian cancer by developing a new therapy that could prevent recurrence after initial therapy and help immunotherapy work in patients with ovarian cancer.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jul 16, 2019
- Source ID
- W81XWH1910189
Entities
People
- David Weiner
Organizations
- United States Army
- Wistar Institute