Viralytics (ASX:VLA) has announced that abstracts for all three posters for presentation at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2016 have been publicly released.
The full posters were presented in the US overnight.
The first presentation was early results from the Phase 1b MITCI Clinical Trial of a novel immunotherapy combination therapy of intralesional Coxsackievirus A21 and systemic ipilimumab, more commonly known as Bristol-Myers Squibb's YERVOY, in patients with advanced melanoma.
The study has now treated eleven patients with the first six patients evaluable for tumour assessment at Day 106.
"Of five patients not previously treated with YERVOY there was a confirmed overall response in four patients, with all responses occurring by 3.5 months, and in both injected and non-injected lesions. Complete tumour responses were observed in 2 patients. A sixth patient that had progressed on earlier treatment with YERVOY and KEYTRUDA has stable disease at 3.5 months."
The 13 patient CALM Extension Study assessed changes in tumour tissue following administration of CAVATAK in advanced melanoma patients.
"Intratumoral delivery of CAVATAK was shown to notably influence the dynamics of the tumour micro-environment as evidenced by increases in both immune cell infiltrates and levels of immune-checkpoint genes," said the company.
The poster presentation for the Preclinical Combination Immunotherapy Study reported on studies assessing the anti-cancer activity of the combination of intravenously delivered CAVATAK and checkpoint inhibitor antibodies in a melanoma and lung cancer immune competent mouse model.
"Significant anti-tumor activity was seen with the combination of CAVATAK and checkpoint inhibitors, further supporting the clinical evaluation of such an immunotherapeutic combination treatment regimen."
Checkpoint inhibitors are considered an important new class of anticancer agent that take the brakes off the immune response to cancer and could have application across a broad range of cancer types including melanoma, lung and bladder cancers.