Apologies if someone has already posted this, but Yuman Fong and team have just published a new paper in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences, detailing the potential to use CF33 against intra peritoneal metastatic gastric cancer.
A few months ago they showed excellent results for this in mice with human tumour xenografts. The latest study is of CF33 administered to ex vivo peritoneal cancer cells taken from actual human patients.
It's a dense scientific read, but my summary would be: the results are in line with what they expected from the mouse studies. CF33 kills the cancer cells and also creates the conditions to stimulate an immune response. They are planning to take CF33 into human trials against intra peritoneal GC and they feel it has the potential to be an effective treatment for a cancer type which currently has no effective treatment options at all.
Here is a relevant quote:
"The insights about the direct oncolytic and immune-associated effects of CF33-OVs in the peritoneal cells of GC patients will help guide the translation of CF33-OVs into early phase trials in the IP treatment of GCPM.
In summary, routinely available peritoneal liquid biopsy specimens from GC patients provided a simple ex vivo platform for investigating the efficacy of the CF33-hNIS-antiPDL1 treatment. We show that: (1) CF33-hNIS-antiPDL1 effectively infects and kills human peritoneal GCPM cancer cells, (2) anti-PD-L1 scFv expressed by the virus-infected cancer cells blocks PD-L1 on cancer cells, and (3) CF33-hNIS-antiPDL1 decreases immune inhibitory factors and growth factors to create an anti-tumor immune microenvironment. These findings encourage the further development of CF33-hNIS-antiPDL1 into effective immunotherapeutic agents for the IP treatment of GCPM patients."
Source:
https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/24/18/14189We will know if CF33 really works, long before a human trial in IP GC returns any results. Like everyone else here, I'm waiting for preliminary data on effectiveness from the current Check-vacc and Vaccinia trials. If that data is indeed positive, then the IP GC option will simply further expand the range of applications for CF33, which could end up being most, if not all, cancer types.
Still lots of ifs, and meanwhile the share price keeps getting hammered. I don't like that any more than anyone else, but I'm still of the view that the science will eventually have the last word, and so far the science keeps looking good.
Cheers
Dave
(20min delay)