Antigenics vaccine shows promise in brain cancer

By Toni Clarke

BOSTON (Reuters) - An Antigenics Inc. cancer vaccine, Oncophage, which failed last year to stave off the recurrence of kidney cancer in a late-stage clinical trial, continues to show promise as a treatment for brain cancer, researchers said on Monday.

Antigenics, whose shares rose 35 percent in morning trade, said data from a trial of 12 patients with glioblastoma, or late-stage brain cancer, showed the vaccine boosted the immune systems of all 12 patients and appears to be helping improve survival.

While the trial is extremely small, it is potentially significant because no cancer therapy has been shown to consistently boost the body's immune system in such a way that it can become a primary weapon in attacking the disease.

"This immune response is really unprecedented," said Dr. Andrew Parsa, assistant professor of neurological surgery at the University of California, San Francisco, and lead investigator on the trial.

The data are to be presented on Monday at the annual meeting of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons.

Parsa, who receives no funding or compensation from Antigenics, said late-stage brain cancer patients on average survive only 6.5 months once their cancer has recurred after surgery. Patients in the trial are surviving on average at least four months longer than the historical norm, he said.

"I believe this vaccine is going to have an impact on patient survival in the right situation," Parsa said.

Shares of Antigenics, which traded as high as $17 about five years ago, rose $1.29 to $4.96 in morning trade on the Nasdaq.

Still, Oncophage has disappointed before. It failed late-stage clinical trials to treat skin cancer and kidney cancer.

It is possible, however, that the vaccine is more effective than those late-stage trials suggest, said Parsa, who this year received the AANS Young Investigator of the Year award.

"There is no doubt in my mind that there are kidney cancer patients alive because of that vaccine," he said. "And there is no doubt in my mind that kidney cancer patients will benefit if they get the vaccine."

The key, he said, is getting the vaccine to patients who can benefit from it the most: those whose cancer has been fully removed following surgery and has not spread to other parts of the body.

Antigenics, a small biotechnology company, plans to present more mature data from its kidney cancer trial in the middle of this year, including a subset analysis of patients who fit such a profile.

Even if the data are positive, it is unclear whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration would approve the drug based on such a retrospective analysis. Typically, the agency requires additional trials to confirm such analyses.

Parsa said that while results from the 12-patient brain cancer trial would not normally mean much, as they could be due to chance, they are compelling in this case because they correlate to a patient-specific, measurable immune response.