- Strong recruitment – commenced April 2023, 8 patients to date.
- Strong clinician interest across multiple sites.
- Intralesional administration well tolerated, no dose-limiting toxicities.
- Early signs of induction of potentially beneficial inflammatory cytokines/chemokines, such as CXCL10.
- Phase 1b combination with checkpoint inhibitor to open in early 2024.
Melbourne, Australia 6 November 2023 – ImmVirX Pty Limited, a life sciences company focused on developing next-generation, receptor targeted oncolytic viral immunotherapies to transform outcomes for patients with some of the most prevalent and challenging cancer types, is pleased to report on progress in its Phase 1a clinical study that was presented at the 38th Annual Meeting of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) in San Diego.
The study, Phase 1a open-label, non-randomized, multi-centre clinical trial of intratumoral IVX037 in patients with advanced microsatellite stable (MSS) colorectal, gastroesophageal or ovarian cancer, is ongoing at four sites in Australia.
“We are very encouraged by progress to date, including strong recruitment and clinician interest,” said Immvirx Managing Director Malcolm McColl. “In addition, elevated levels of CXCL10 provides an encouraging signal as this chemokine is correlated with response to anti-PD-(L)1 therapy. Given this we are excited to get underway with immune checkpoint combination studies in early 2024.”
Patient recruitment commenced in April 2023, with 8 patients currently enrolled. IVX037 dosing in Cohorts 1 and 2 is complete, with Cohort 3 dosing ongoing. To date IVX037 intralesional administration has been generally well tolerated with no dose-limiting toxicities observed. IVX037 has been successfully administered to liver, lymph node and abdominal metastases. Preliminary serum biomarker analysis indicates early signs of IVX037 induction of potentially beneficial inflammatory cytokines/chemokines, such as CXCL10.
“I am greatly encouraged by the results so far in the dose escalation component of this study showing that IVX037 is tolerable and results in stability of injected lesions even at early stages of dose escalation” said Dr Jia (Jenny) Liu, medical oncology staff specialist at The Kinghorn Cancer Centre, St Vincent’s Hospital (Darlinghurst, Sydney Australia) and Principal Investigator on the study. “I look forward to enrolling patients to the Phase 1b component of this trial early next year in which we can examine the potential for synergistic benefits of IVX037 administration in combination with a checkpoint inhibitor.”
“I am pleased with the early progress of IVX037 in my advanced colorectal cancer patients. Administration of IVX037 appears to be generally well tolerated with some early signs of reductions in injected lesions and disease control. I look forward to further patient enrolment with an increased IVX037 dosing schedule and the combination study with an immune checkpoint inhibitor” said Dr Mark Wong, (Crown Princess Mary Cancer Centre, Westmead Hospital).
The SITC poster presentation is available on the ImmVirX website. Details of the study can be found at ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT05427487.
About the SITC
It is the mission of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) to improve cancer patient outcomes by advancing the science, development and application of cancer immunology and immunotherapy through its core values of interaction/integration, innovation, translation and leadership in the field. SITC aims to make cancer immunotherapy a standard of care and the word “cure” a reality for cancer patients everywhere.
About ImmVirX
ImmVirX is developing novel oncolytic viruses to create powerful new cancer immunotherapy combinations. Its novel oncolytic immunotherapy harnesses the power of viruses to preferentially infect and kill cancer cells and induce systemic anti-tumour immune responses.
The proprietary bio-selected RNA viruses target specific receptor proteins highly expressed on a range of cancer cell types, allowing them to selectively enter, replicate in, and destroy tumour cells while creating beneficial changes in the tumour micro-environment, potentially leading to the generation of specific innate and adaptive immune responses against cancer cells.
In this way, the viral candidates are intended to increase the effectiveness of current immunotherapies, primarily immune checkpoint inhibitors and CAR-T cell therapies, in fighting cancers of high unmet need including colorectal, gastric, ovarian and liver cancer.
Website: https://www.immvirx.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ImmVirX
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/immvirx
Media Contact
Dr Malcolm McColl
Chief Executive Officer, Acting Chairman and Co-Founder
