Vall d’Hebron continues pancreatic cancer drug trial following good results

The Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO) is carrying out a phase II clinical trial international phase II clinical trial of a new drug, MSC-1, which has already yielded good results in a first stage with 41 patients in advanced cancers, among them of pancreas.

The mission of the new drug is to. block the LIF protein, which is altered in various types of cancer, promoting the tumor stem cell proliferation and deactivating the immune system response against the tumor.

In this first phase of the trial, which has already been completed, 41 patients from the Vall d’Hebron Hospital, from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City (United States) and the Princess Margaret Hospital of Toronto (Canada).

The results of the Phase I clinical trial, published in the journal of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO), indicate that the MSC-1 antibody developed by the VHIO is safe and well tolerated in patients with advanced solid tumors.

While the objective of the phase I clinical trial is specifically to test the safety, in the first participating patients, the investigators observed that in 9 of the patients (23.7%) the tumor stopped growing.

In the case of a patient with advanced pancreatic cancer and previously treated with four different drugs, we observed an 40% tumor reduction in one of the lesions.

“The results of this trial support our hypothesis that. LIF could be a therapeutic target to treat patients with advanced solid tumors,” said VHIO researcher Joan Seoane.

“In fact, we have already initiated a phase II clinical trial of MSC-1 in combination with a immunotherapeutic agent, anti-PD-L1, in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer, the results of which should determine the antitumor efficacy of the drug.” Seoane emphasized.

This phase II trial is being carried out by the company Medimmune/AstraZeneca.