Agenus Brain Cancer Vaccine Increases Rate Of Survival

Agenus has announced the results of its brain cancer vaccine trial for patients who were diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme, or GBM. The researchers found that patients who received the Agenus’ Prophage autologous cancer vaccine as a portion of their treatment were able to live for twice as long as previously expected. GBM is expected to kill patients within one year, but 50 percent of patients who were treated with the Agenus vaccine lived for two years. One third of patients lived past the two year mark and are still being monitored.

Andrew Parsa, Principal Investigator of the study and the Michael J. Marchese Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, commented on the results of the study. “These data suggest that Prophage is generating an effective immune response, which is translating into an extension in survival far beyond what is historically seen in patients with GBM. These data provide the impetus for a definitive, randomized clinical trial,” he said. “Glioblastoma tumors are often resistant to standard therapies and the extended progression-free survival and proportion of long-term survivors is very encouraging.”

Garo Armen, CEO, and chairman of Agenus, said that he believes Prophage could “play an important role in changing the treatment paradigm for patients with GBM.” He noted that the company was exploring partnerships for Phase 3 studies that will take place at a later date.

It is believed that prophage works by stimulating the patient’s immune system to attack the GBM tumor based on a spectrum of mutant proteins. The treatment is individualized because each patient’s tumors develop based on an accumulation of random mutations. The Phase II trial involved 46 patients who were treated at eight different centers across the U.S.