Trial of Therapeutic Vaccine TroVax® in Advanced Colorectal Cancer Patients Set

Oxford BioMedica reported that it has received approval from the U.K. Gene Therapy Advisory Committee too initiate a phase II clinical trial of its gene-based therapeutic vaccine TroVax® in patients receiving chemotherapy for advanced colorectal cancer.

The drug, designed to stimulate the patient's immune system to recognise and destroy cancer cells, achievved promising results in a Phase I/II trial in metastatic colorectal cancer patients and was shown to be safe and well tolerated in these patients (see earlier Colorectal Cancer Week story).

The Gene Therapy Advisory Committee has approved enrollment of up to 15 patients at Christie Hospital in Manchester and two other U.K. medical centers who will receive 5 doses of TroVax in addition to the chemotherapy drugs 5-fluorouracil, leukovorin and irinotecan.

Since the purpose of the trial is to test immune response to TroVax and safety in conjunction with this chemotherapy, the trial is expected to last only 6 months after the recruitment of the last patient, an Oxford BioMedica spokesperson said.

Other sources: Oxford BioMedica