Posted on April 25, 2002 at 11:55 a.m.
BIRMINGHAM, AL —UAB’s Comprehensive Cancer Center is offering a new clinical research study for people whose colorectal cancer has spread to other parts of the body. This study will use cancer vaccine technology to try to activate the body’s own immune system to fight untreated secondary cancer.
Dr. Robert M. Conry, associate professor of medicine, heads the UAB arm of the national clinical trial. UAB is the only study site in the southeastern U.S.
“We will be seeing if the vaccine, combined with chemotherapy, allows a better outcome for patients than chemotherapy alone,” Conry said. For more information about specific study eligibility, people should contact Ronda Carlisle, R.N., at (205) 975-2511 or via email at ronda.carlisle@ccc.uab.edu.
With therapeutic cancer vaccines, the goal is to “turn on” the immune system of people who already have the disease, in order to increase the power of current treatments such as chemotherapy.
The multicenter trial, a pilot Phase II study to assess safety and immune system activity, will randomly assign patients to one of three active treatment groups.
One study group will receive the vaccine before starting standard chemotherapy and will receive additional, concurrent doses of the vaccine with the chemotherapy. Patients in another group will receive the same regimen plus doses of tetanus toxoid to determine whether this additional compound further boosts the immune response. Patients in the third group will receive standard chemotherapy.
Patients in the third group who achieve complete or partial responses will have the option of receiving the vaccine upon completion of their chemotherapy.
The investigational vaccine has shown promise in early clinical studies conducted by the National Cancer Institute, in collaboration with Therion Biologics of Cambridge, Mass.
The cancer vaccine under study is delivered via a live, genetically engineered canarypox virus vector. This variant of the canarypox virus produces a self-limiting infection that does not cause any harm or symptoms in humans, but causes infected cells to temporarily display proteins that are linked to specific cancers. It is designed to target the tumor-associated antigen called CEA that is over-expressed in the majority of colorectal cancers.
Other trial sites are in New York City, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Chicago, Ottawa, and Dunmore, Pa. Aventis Pasteur Limited of Toronto is the study sponsor.
Colorectal cancer is the most common cancer of the gastrointestinal tract and the second leading cause of cancer-related morbidity and mortality. There are approximately 300,000 new cases and 200,000 deaths in North America and Europe every year. An estimated 70 percent of patients are initially diagnosed with treatable forms of the disease, but one-fourth of these patients will still experience recurrence, which frequently leads to death due to metastatic disease.
The UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center is one of only 41 NCI-designated comprehensive centers in the U.S. The cancer center was one of the first eight centers designated and has maintained its comprehensive status continuously since 1973.