Novel Vaccine Technology Aims To Suppress Growth of Tumors

MedImmune Inc. (Nasdaq: MEDI) and Cerus Corporation (Nasdaq: CERS) today announced preclinical results demonstrating the effectiveness of a novel therapeutic vaccine technology in suppressing the growth of certain tumors. These results will be presented today at the 95th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) in Orlando Florida. The associated AACR poster is entitled "Recombinant Listeria monocytogenes-Based Immunotherapy Targeting the Receptor Tyrosine Kinase EphA2."

The vaccine targets EphA2 protein overexpression. EphA2 is a protein overexpressed by many different types of human cancers including melanoma (skin cancer) and breast lung prostate and colon cancers. The highest levels of EphA2 have been found on the most aggressive cancer cells which is consistent with evidence linking EphA2 with clinical features of metastasis. Research to date indicates that EphA2 functions differently on malignant cells than it does on normal cells and that these differences may help facilitate the selective targeting of cancer cells while minimizing unwanted toxicities to normal cells.