hTERT peptide-based vaccine(Invectys SA)

Lung cancer is the most commonly diagnosed malignancy and the leading cause of cancer-related mortality both in men and women worldwide.
The past few years have demonstrated great progress in the field of tumor immunotherapy through agents that address mechanisms of immune escape notably, so called immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICB). Indeed, ICB have emerged as a fatal weapon in the anticancer treatment arsenal. Anti-PD-1 and anti-PD-L1 antibodies have shown promising results in several cancers including Non-small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) patients. Although such ICB extend patient's survival compared with conventional systemic therapies, they fail to control cancer progression in a significant proportion of patients which can reach up to 50-60% in NSCLC. Recent literature highlights a range of factors involved in the heterogeneous responses and failures to ICB therapies. The challenge is how can ICB treatment efficacy be extended to majority patients? To respond to this question, to increase the success of immunotherapy, immuno-oncology community develops combinations approaches.
The aim of these project is to evaluate the efficacy of Nivolumab plus a novel CD4Th1 inducer anti-cancer vaccine in NSCLC patients.
Nivolumab (NIVO), which is an anti-PD-1 antibody, has shown promising results in 2nd line treatment for advanced NSCLC.
UCPVax is a therapeutic anti-cancer vaccine based on the telomerase-derived helper peptides designed to induce strong TH1 CD4 T cell responses in cancer patients (NCT02818426).

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most frequent primary brain tumor and the brain tumor with the poorest prognosis. The current treatment relies on surgical resection of gross tumor followed by radiochemotherapy and adjuvant therapy with temozolomide.
After such therapy, most patients experiment recurrence and few therapeutic option are available. Despite such therapies, median survival only reaches around fifteen months.
There is a strong rational to develop telomerase vaccine in GBM. Telomerase (TERT) is a major oncogene, particularly in primary brain tumors 24. Alterations in TERT are very frequent in central nervous system tumors, seen most commonly in gliomas25. Mutations in the TERT promoter are found in approximately 80% of primary glioblastoma (GBM). These findings strongly support the rational to develop vaccine targeting telomerase in GBM.
The aim of this project is to evaluate UCPVax treatment in glioblastoma. UCPVax is a therapeutic anti-cancer vaccine based on the telomerase-derived helper peptides designed to induce strong TH1 CD4 T cell responses in cancer patients (NCT02818426).