ASCO Publication on Curing Stage IV Melanoma The Vaccine sectionToday 06:49
ASCO PUBLICATIONS
26th of April
“Curing Stage IV Melanoma: Where Have We Been and Where Are We?”
https://ascopubs.org/doi/10.1200/EDBK_438654
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BioNTech (BNT221),57 while Moderna is focusing on the adjuvant melanoma space in collaboration with Merck.58 BioNTech is also the manufacturer of BNT111, a cancer vaccine encoding for a fixed set of four cancer-specific antigens (NY-ESO-1, MAGE-A3, tyrosinase, and TPTE),59 now being evaluated combined with cemiplimab in a randomized prospective trial that has recently completed recruitment (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT04526899).
Other innovative vaccine approaches in testing include Scancell's DNA plasmid vaccine, SCIB1, which incorporates specific epitopes from proteins gp100 and TRP-2, identified from the cloning of T cells from patients who spontaneously recovered from melanoma. Both proteins play key roles in the production of melanin. Evaluation of the first 12 patients recruited to a phase II trial combining SCIB1 with ipinivo reported a response rate of 83% (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT04079166). IO102-IO103, manufactured by IO Biotech, targets immunosuppressive proteins such as IDO and PD-L1. The phase I/II trial (KEYNOTE-D18) combined with pembrolizumab and demonstrated an overall response rate of 73% and a CR rate of 47%. These results led to the FDA granting breakthrough designation of the combination, and a confirmatory randomized phase II trial is underway (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT05280314).