Rimas V. Lukas, MD, a neuro-oncologist at Northwestern Medicine Lou and Jean Malnati Brain Tumor Institute, Chicago, praised the investigators’ willingness to explore relatively new areas of cancer research. “This is an interesting study by a strong group delving further into the nervous system–immune–gastrointestinal system axis and its interaction with cancer. This growing area of research ties what may seem to be disparate but are clearly interrelated disciplines,” Dr. Lukas told The ASCO Post.
“The trial uses EO2401, which is not directly derived from patients’ microbiomes as the name implies but is an off-the-shelf vaccine designed to mimic epitopes found in both the microbiome and these tumors,” he continued. “The off-the-shelf nature allows it to be quickly deployed; if successful, it is more easily scalable than patient-derived vaccines.”
Rimas V. Lukas, MD
Patients with progressive glioblastoma were treated with EO2401 plus nivolumab or EO2401 plus nivolumab and bevacizumab. In the nivolumab-alone arm, the median overall survival was 10.6 months. “Unsurprisingly, for an immunotherapeutic approach, there was a discordance between progression-free (1.8 months) and overall survival,” Dr. Lukas observed. “As with other vaccine therapies for glioblastoma, the treatment appears to be quite tolerable, with rare grade 3 or 4 toxicities.”
“Immunocorrelative studies revealed responses against the peptides in the majority of patients, which remained sustained over many months,” he continued. “One could imagine that this investigational approach in the future may be tolerable if used with other mechanistically chosen therapeutics.”
DISCLOSURE: Dr. Lukas has served on the speakers bureau for Novocure; has served as an advisor and on the speakers bureau for Merck; and has received research support from Bristol Myers Squibb.
