- Thinly traded nano cap OncoSec Medical (NASDAQ:ONCS) is up 22% premarket on increased volume in response to its announcement of encouraging follow-up data in that show treatment with ImmunoPulse interleukin-12 (IL-12) appears to enhance melanoma patients' responses to PD-1/PD-L1 therapy. The results were presented at the American Association of Cancer Research Annual Meeting in New Orleans, LA.
- The data were generated from a single-site retrospective analysis of the company's Phase 2 study of ImmunoPulse IL-12 as monotherapy in patients with advanced melanoma. After 34 patients completing treatment with ImmunoPulse IL-12, a subset (n=14) received anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapy, either as the next line or later line of treatment. The overall response rate (ORR) was 64% (n=9/14), including five complete responders (36%), four partial responders (29%). Two had stable disease (14%) and three progressed. In addition, eight of the 14 evaluable patients received anti-PD-1/PD-L1 treatment with no intervening therapy after treatment with ImmunPulse IL-12. The ORR in this subgroup was 75% (n=6), including four complete responders and two partial responders.
- According to the company, analyses of multiple biomarkers appear to show treatment with ImmunoPulse IL-12 enhances the response to anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapy by triggering the PD-1 immune checkpoint, thereby providing the "substrate" for the therapy to work.
- ImmunoPulse IL-12 delivers a pulsed electric field to cells via a hand-held applicator which temporarily increases the porosity of the cell membranes (electroporation). DNA IL-12 is then delivered to the electroporated cells which triggers each cell to produce and secrete IL-12 protein which then identifies and eliminates cancer cells as part of a natural immune response.
- Read now OncoSec Medical: A Look Back And A Look Forward