stimuvax?

[sarah]

Lani, anyone heard about this? http://www.oncothyreon.com/clinical/stimuvax.html
health and happiness
sarah

[Jackie07]

Sarah,

I found a couple articles about Stimuvax (L-BLP25) - figured Lani is probably busy with the ASCO conference:

So far it seems to have been evaluated for Non-small Cell Lung Cancer only:

Jpn J Clin Oncol. 2011 May;41(5):718-22. Epub 2011 Mar 9.
Safety of BLP25 Liposome Vaccine (L-BLP25) in Japanese Patients with Unresectable Stage III NSCLC after Primary Chemoradiotherapy: Preliminary Results from a Phase I/II Study.
Ohyanagi F, Horai T, Sekine I, Yamamoto N, Nakagawa K, Nishio M, Senger S, Morsli N, Tamura T.
Source
*The Cancer Institute Hospital of JFCR, 3-10-6 Ariake, Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-8550, Japan. mnishio@jfcr.or.jp.
Abstract
Preliminary safety findings are presented from the open-label Phase I part of a combined Phase I/II study of BLP25 liposome vaccine (L-BLP25) in Japanese patients with unresectable Stage III non-small-cell lung cancer after primary chemoradiotherapy. Six patients received four or more once-weekly vaccinations with L-BLP25 1000 μg subcutaneously prior to a preliminary safety evaluation. Treatment continued with once-weekly vaccinations with L-BLP25 1000 μg subcutaneously until week 8, then maintenance vaccinations every 6 weeks until progressive disease. Cyclophosphamide (300 mg/m(2) i.v. single dose) was given 3 days before first vaccination. Median age was 63.5 years and performance status was 0-1. No serious adverse events occurred; none necessitated discontinuation. L-BLP25-related adverse events (Grade 1) were myalgia, arthralgia and nausea; cyclophosphamide-related adverse events comprised dysgeusia, anorexia and nausea. The first evaluation of L-BLP25 in Japanese patients shows that it is well tolerated, and the safety profile is consistent with that seen in previous studies of Caucasian patients.


Expert Rev Respir Med. 2008 Feb;2(1):37-45.
BLP-25 liposomal vaccine: a promising potential therapy in non-small-cell lung cancer.
Powell E, Chow LQ.
Source
The Ottawa Hospital Regional Cancer Center/University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Abstract
Despite marginal improvements in survival gained from multimodality treatment, long-term survival rates remain low for lung cancer, which remains the leading cause of cancer-related mortality in North America. BLP25 liposomal (L-BLP25) vaccine (Stimuvax) is a promising liposomal vaccine designed to generate an immune response against MUC1, a glycoprotein expressed on the cell surface of many normal epithelial tissues and over or aberrantly expressed on many carcinoma cells, including non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). MUC1 is potentially a good target for immunotherapy, as evidenced by preclinical data and in Phase I and II clinical trials demonstrating the potential early activity of L-BLP25 with minimal toxicity in NSCLC. A Phase III randomized, placebo-controlled trial of L-BLP25 is currently being conducted in stage III NSCLC patients.