This week, UbiVac and Bristol Myers Squibb announced their clinical trial collaboration in a Biospace press release. The two companies, in a Phase 1b trial, look to study whether combining UbiVac’s DPV-001 and Bristol Myers Squibb’s anti-OX40 will increase anticancer immunity in patients with advanced triple negative breast cancer.
Immunotherapy Combination
DRibble Platform Vaccine 001 (DPV-001) is an investigational therapy that is one-of-a-kind. UbiVac describes this cancer vaccine as:
a first in class technology that combines more than 100 cancer targets, including at least 13 NCI prioritized cancer antigens, [with] five immune stimulants, a spectrum of heat shock proteins and chaperones – all packaged in micro-vesicles [targeted] to dendritic cells, which can educate immune cells to recognize cancer.
After injecting the vaccine into a patient’s lymph nodes, DPV-001 stimulates immune response, prompting immune cells to actively target cancer. Ideally, collaborating with Bristol Myers Squibb, and combining DPV-001 and anti-OX40, will lead to an active and strong immune response that fills the unmet need in patient treatment.
Triple Negative Breast Cancer
Breast cancer is fairly straightforward: cancer that forms in breast tissue. While breast cancer can affect both males and females, it is most common in females. Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) makes up about 10-15% of all breast cancer diagnoses.
So what does triple negative mean? Well, it signifies that cancer cells lack estrogen and progesterone receptors, and make little HER2 protein. Triple negative breast cancer is invasive and aggressive, difficult to treat, and often results in poor outcomes. For those whose cancer hasn’t spread, the 5-year survival rate is 91%. It falls to 65% if the cancer spreads to nearby organs or lymph nodes, then to 11% if the cancer spread to the lungs, liver, bones, or other organs. It typically affects women under 40, African-Americans, and those with BRCA1 mutations.
Symptoms include:
- Breast and nipple pain
- Lumps in breast tissue
- Swollen lymph nodes
- Inverted nipples
- Nipple discharge
- Changes in breast size, shape, feeling, or appearance
- Peeling
- Scaling
- Crusting
- Flaking
- Pitting / dimpling
- Thickening
- Swelling
Learn more about triple negative breast cancer.
