Dr. Marron on the Population Included in a Phase 1 Study of PGV-001 Neoantigen Cancer Vaccine

Thomas Urban Marron, MD, PhD, an assistant director of early phase and immunotherapy clinical trials at the Tisch Cancer Institute, and an assistant professor of medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, describes the patient population included in a phase 1 study (NCT02721043) examining the use of PGV-001, a neoantigen cancer vaccine, across different malignancies.

The trial enrolled patients who had at least a 30% chance of disease recurrence, which was based on factors such as tumor stage, and other histologic characteristics, according to Marron. For patients with multiple myeloma, it is almost guaranteed that they will experience recurrence following autologous stem cell transplant, he notes. 

Similarly high rates of recurrence have been observed in patients with recurrent head and neck cancer who are undergoing a second surgery, a population that comprised a notable portion of study participants (n = 6). Additionally, patients with advanced lung cancer experience similar higher rates of recurrence, Marron adds. Nearly all patients received an adjuvant therapy following treatment with surgery or transplant followed by PGV-001, Marron concludes.