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Watmighthavben

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20/11/23

07:39

Post #: 70988701
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Why is the Vaxinia (Mast) Trial ground breaking?

November 20, WMHB

My fellow poster @fattchoi noted yesterday the Vaxinia trial is shooting the lights out with OnCarlytics and Azer-cel starting up. Won't be long now for Vaxinia to show its true capability.

With this in mind, and the prevailing IMU share price aside, family, friends and investors have asked me to discuss why the recent Vaxinia results are in fact, to use my terminology, game changing, or next level (as the Millennials would say). To ascertain why I guess we need to take a deep dive into the disease Vaxinia is attempting to treat, that being cancer. In doing so we come to an understanding of how complex the disease is, and most importantly how unique, if not ingenious, the Professor Fong designed Vaxinia truly is.

Every cancer is different

Cancer has been linked to mutations in between 500 and 1000 genes (of the 20,000 or so in each person). “We are literally trying to tackle hundreds of different diseases and none are easy,” says Professor Glen Boyle at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Brisbane. “Every cancer is different, almost every patient has a different kind of disease that behaves differently in their individual body.” (See for more).

Cancer can spread, from one vital organ to another

Therefore when you consider how hard, given their complexity, early stage cancer diagnosis are to cure, imagine how hard it is to cure the worst of the worst when it comes to cancers, those that have metasticized. When cancer spreads, it is called metastatic. Oncologists call the original tumour “primary” and the secondary tumours “mets,” short for metastases. These are the cancers being targeted in Professor Yuman Fongs Vaxinia (MAST) trial. Pathologists speak of grades of cancer (how aggressive it is) and stages of its development (how much there is and how far it has spread). Although it is different in each case, generally a small tumour that has not spread is described as stage one, while cancer that has spread to at least one other body organ is stage four. Imugene and Professor Fong are going after the advanced, tumours, those that have metasticized, and spread throughout the patients body.

The CF33/Vaxinia oncolytic virus can spread

For those unaware Professor Fongs oncolytic viruses, CF33 and Vaxinia, are currently trialling to target triple negative breast cancer, and any type of cancer, respectively. Cancer biologist Darren Saunders notes the deadly thing about some of the most common cancers found in parts of the body not essential for survival (say, mammary glands in the breast) is that they can infiltrate vital organs such as the lungs. “Let’s say you have a massive ball of cancerous cells growing in your lungs,” Saunders says. “That part of your lung is no longer going to be working as a lung should because those cells have lost their ability to do their jobs.” Hence the power of an oncolytic virus such as Vaxinia, for just as cancer can spread from its prime location to ones vital organs, so to can the virus. Indeed recent studies and imaging have highlighted Vaxinia’s ability to spread through the patients body, from tumour to tumour, seeking out even the more difficult to find and locate tumours. Tumours such as those present behind the abdominal cavity wall within a cancer patients body, including peritoneal cancers (i.e., ovarian, colectoral or even mesothelioma).

When one considers the median survival for those with peritoneal cancer is six months in accordance with the stage of cancer (5-10 months for stages 0, I, and II, and 2-3.9 months for stage III-IV), one quickly recognises the need for Vaxinia to be trialled on as many patients as is physically possible in the year to come. In the same breath one salutes the extraordinary accomplishment of Vaxinia, in stemming the spread of cancer in 18 of the 25 patients assessed prior to the November 6 IMU ASX announcement.

CF33/Vaxinia can prime the immune system to fight off cancer

The modified pox virus Vaxinia, whose technical name is CF33-hNIS, not just kills cancerous cells but also trains the immune system against them — like a vaccine does. Vaxinia works by entering cells, duplicating itself, and causing the infected cell to burst, releasing thousands of new Vaxinia particles that act as antigens and stimulate the immune system to attack nearby cancer cells. This aspect makes Vaxinia even more promising.

"Our previous research demonstrated that oncolytic viruses can stimulate the immune system to respond to and kill cancer, as well as stimulate the immune system to be more responsive to other immunotherapies, including checkpoint inhibitors," said Dr Daneng Li of City of Hope. Founder from the City of Hope, Professor Yuman Fong, believes the virus may even teach the immune system to recognise and destroy cancer before it can take hold or come back.

Cancer biologist Saunders understands that a healthy immune system is vital if we are to fight off cancers. He notes that our innate immune system is pretty effective in targeting cancer cells and leaving normal cells unscathed. Says Saunders of the immune system: “It’s a finely tuned, super-sensitive system that is able to recognise things that don’t look like our cells and attack and kill them off. We would have a lot more cancers than we currently do if we didn’t have functional immune systems.”

Vaxinia produces outstanding results in the current MAST trial

In all the hulabalu that is the Aussie share market, people appear to have forgotten that on November 6 this year, in the Vaxinia Trial it was announced 7 patients with gastrointestinal cancers who received CF33-hNIS alone including 3 colorectal cancer, 2 bile duct,1 pancreatic and 1 liver cancer showed positive treatment effects, with a disease control rate (all CR, PR and SD) of 86%. These results follow on from preclinical trials for the drug in which the City of Hope-developed oncolytic virus had shrunk colon, lung, breast, ovarian and pancreatic cancer tumors in preclinical laboratory and animal models. In the existing trial, commenced in May 2022, even at relatively low doses of Vaxinia one patient with bile duct cancer treated intravenously with a mid-dose has achieved a complete response with no recurrence in more than 200 days. Another patient has had a partial response and a further 16 patients have remained stable. It must be noted that despite the complexities associated in treating cancer, in particular cancers that have metasticized, as identified in this post, Vaxinia has shown positive signals in spite of the relatively low doses administered.

What about other success stories?

Keytruda has proven successful in treating breast cancer, lung cancer and skin cancers, through blocking what is known as the PD-1 pathway, to help prevent cancer cells from hiding. KEYTRUDA helps the immune system do what it was meant to do: detect and fight cancer cells. Often combined with chemotherapy, Keytruda does produce side effects in patients, unlike Vaxinia, which has only produced mid flu symptoms upon administration. More recently the Her 2 drug Enhertu has had success on working against unresectable (not removable with surgery) and metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer that has been treated with an anti-HER2 medicine, as well as HER2-low breast cancer that has been treated with chemotherapy.

In addition to these success stories CAR T therapies, wherein a patients white T cells are re-engineered and replanted into their system so they can find and destroy cancer cells, have been able to successfully treat many patients with blood cancers such as lymphoma. Unfortunately though many of these treatments, such as monoclonal antibodies, or even CAR T’s, are seen by progressive medical experts as utilising out dated technology, that is not only overly expensive, but wrought with patient side effects. Hence the desire for contemporary medical authorities to find a cure for the huge unmet need that is solid tumours (i.e., as opposed to blood cancers), in a safe and cost effective manner.

Conclusion

Taking into consideration all of the above, as the current trial progresses and as time goes by, were Vaxinia at higher doses to prove even more effective at stemming the flow of cancer, as anticipated by Professor Fong, Imugene may well have developed a mechanism for treating late stage cancer patients with metastasised conditions. In six weeks time we should know the results of additional patients from the early cohorts in the trial. In less than six months we may well know the future of both Vaxinia and therein Imugene, as further results come to hand from what is now an expanded trial assessing well over 100 patient outcomes.

If Vaxinia proves as successful at reaching and eliminating multiple cancer indications, as has its trial combination partner Keytruda, eventual revenue of $20 billion dollars per annum could well be predicted for the drugs marketer, given Keytruda has already topped that figure in 2023. That’s worth a pretty penny to not only cancer sufferers worldwide, but the owners of Imugene who in licensing Vaxinia, recognise the inherent value of Professor Fong's ground breaking medicine.

DYOR Opinions only

Images courtesy of Unsplash

IMU Price at posting: 8.9¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
169 Upvote

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