- Cancer treatment company Immutep (IMM) has seen improving results from its cancer trials, INSIGHT-004 and TACTI-002
- For the INSIGHT-004 trial, the company is combining its lead product, efti, with avelumab on 12 patients, who all have different solid tumours
- Currently, 41.7 per cent (five of the 12) of the patients have shown a partial response to the combination therapy – an increase from the last result of 33 per cent
- For the TACTI-002 head and neck cancer trial, Immutep has seen the improving overall response rate maintained at 38.9 per cent
- Immutep is currently up almost 20 per cent and trading for 25.8 cents
Cancer treatment company Immutep (IMM) has seen improving results from its cancer trials, INSIGHT-004 and TACTI-002.
INSIGHT-004
The trial is combining Immuteps’s lead product candidate, eftilagimod alpha (efti) with avelumab, which is a human anti-PD-L1 antibody.
Immutep is trialling the combined products on 12 patients who have different solid tumours, primarily gastrointestinal cancer. Gastrointestinal cancer is a term for a group of cancers that affect the digestive system- such as the stomach, bowel and liver.
So far, 41.7 per cent (five of the 12) of the patients have shown a partial response to the combination therapy, which is an increase from the last result of 33 per cent.
The trial is being conducted under Immutep’s collaboration with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt in Germany and pharmacy giant Pfizer, who are co-developing, avelumab.
“It is encouraging to see the range of patients with different solid cancers that are responding to the combination of efti and avelumab, including PD-L1-negative cervical cancer, squamous anal cell carcinoma and mesothelioma,” INSIGHT-004 trial investigator Professor Salah-Eddin Al-Batran said.
“These tumours are not typically responsive to immune checkpoint therapy and warrant further investigation,” he added.
TACTI-002
TACTI-002 is testing efti and Merck & Co’s (MSD’s) KEYTRUDA in up to 109 patients with 2nd line head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and non-small cell
lung cancer (NSCLC).
Median Progression Free Survival (PFS) of 4.3 months, with 47.1 per cent of patients progression free at six months of treatment.
The improving overall response rate (iORR) was maintained at 38.9 per cent, with two patients recording a complete response and five patients recording a partial response. Six of the seven responders are still receiving treatment for the next eight to 17 months.
Immutep has reported 67 per cent of the patients are still alive at nine months.
Principal Investigator, Dr Martin Forster, is very encourages by the results in this patient group with resistant late stage head and neck cancers, where the likelihood of response to other treatments is small.
“The durability of responses and the two patients with a complete response are extremely promising signals and this combination should be further investigated,” he said.
On the market this morning, Immutep is up 19.8 per cent and is trading for 25.8 cents at 1:12 pm AEST.