Blood and Tissue Immunophenotyping in Cancer Patients Treated with Anti-Galectin-9 Monoclonal Antibody (LYT-200) Alone and in Combination with Anti-PD1
Abstract
The Fiscal Year 2019 Peer Reviewed Cancer Research Program Topic Areas we address are pancreatic cancer, colorectal cancer, and cholangiosarcoma, a rare cancer. The Military Health Focus Area we address is “gaps in cancer prevention, early detection, prognosis, treatment, and/or survivorship that may impact mission readiness and the health and well-being of military members, Veterans, their beneficiaries, and the general public.” A new form of cancer treatment, called immunotherapy, has been developed in recent years and has achieved great success in many cancer types which used to be difficult to treat, such as lung cancer, melanoma, kidney cancer, and some forms of colon cancer. This type of treatment works on the immune system to make it more effective in eradicating cancer cells. Today, doctors still cannot accurately predict which patients are more likely to benefit from approved immunotherapy drugs and those drugs still in clinical testing. We have developed a potent new immunotherapy drug, called LYT-200, which we will be testing in patients with pancreatic cancer, aggressive colon cancer and cancer of the bile duct system, whose disease has spread and did not respond well to standard methods of treatment. In order to ensure we understand which patients are best suited to respond well to LYT-200 versus those that are unlikely to, we are designing this study to achieve the following: (i) analyze blood and tumor tissue samples from patients receiving LYT-200 to investigate if markers of the immune system’s activity against cancer can be identified to help make such predictions; (ii) determine whether these immune system markers can be identified in blood and/or tumor tissue of patients on treatment; and (iii) correlate our immune system marker findings with how safe and effective the treatment is in these patients. Because clinical trials take many years and require enrolment of many hundreds of patients before a drug is ultimately approved, findings from our study would enable better and informed patient selection for treatment with LYT-200. Our goal is to facilitate faster development timelines and approval of the drug, and ultimately bring a new treatment to cancer patients, especially those in the military and their families who are increasingly at risk from these hard to treat diseases. Our research goals are to provide a new cancer treatment that could help control the disease and extend the lives of those affected.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Mar 10, 2021
- Source ID
- W81XWH2010865
Entities
People
- Aleksandra Filipovic
Organizations
- United States Army