New Lung Cancer Immunotherapy Set to Start Clinical Trials

the Cancer Therapy Advisor take:

Boehringer Ingelheim and CureVac have announced the start of their collaboration to begin clinical trial for a vaccine in early clinical development for the treatment of patients with lung cancer.

The novel mRNA vaccine, currently known as CV9202 was developed by CureVac, and Boehringer Ingelheim will initiate clinical trials of CV9202 for the treatment of patients with advanced or metastatic epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in combination with the tyrosine kinase inhibitor, afatinib, and in patients with unresectable stage 3 NSCLC in combination with chemotherapy and radiation.

CureVac's CV9202 is a combination of mRNA molecules that code for six antigens overexpressed in NSCLC. These mRNA molecules function by inducing an immune response in the body to fight the tumor. CV9202 will be one of the first novel investigational therapeutic mRNA vaccines to undergo clinical trials. CureVac has developed other mRNA vaccines that are currently being tested in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer and NSCLC.

Afatinib is once-daily tyrosine kinase inhibitor used for the treatment of EGFR mutation-positive metastatic NSCLC.