Nat Med: Preliminary clinical trial results show that the combination of Pym monoantas and BL-8040 can double the rate of treatment response in pancreatic cancer patients.

23, 2020 /--- -- Researchers from research institutions such as the Honor Health Institute and the City of Hope Institute for Translational Genomics in the United States have shown how pancreatic cancer patients benefit from immunotherapy in a clinical trial called COMBAT (NCT02826486), according to a new four-year study.
study, published recently in the journal Nature Medicine, is titled "BL-8040, a CXCR4 antagonist, insyson with pembrolizumab and for pancreatic cancer: the COMBAT trial".
photo from Nature Medicine, 2020, doi:10.1038/s41591-020-0880-x.
COMBAT clinical trial is a forward-looking, open-label, Phase IIa clinical trial for patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer, where the cancer has spread to other parts of the body.
these patients received a combined treatment of the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab and BL-8040, a drug that makes immunotherapy more accessible to tumor micro-environments.
the clinical study was conducted at the Honor Health Institute in Arizona, USA, and in the United States and 30 other locations around the world, including Spain, Israel and South Korea.
the two-part clinical trial began in September 2016: (1) Queue 1 was a group of 37 patients with cancer who had made progress on other therapies and were treated with Pym monotherapy and BL-8040.
, the combination therapy appears to make pancreatic cancer "hotter," meaning it works in concert with the body's own immune system.
's previous studies have shown that pancreatic tumors are "cold," meaning immunotherapy drugs like Pym monotherapy do not work on the cancer; (2) in their manuscripts, preliminary results of queue 2 were reported in a queue of 22 patients (estimated to have about 40 patients in the queue) who had previously underwent first-line chemotherapy.
patients received Pym monoantigen and BL-8040, as well as chemotherapy drugs 5-fluorouracil and nanolipid irinotecan.
, co-author of the study and a researcher at the HonorHealth Institute, said, "Meaningful tumor reduction rates are 32 percent, twice as high as for pancreatic cancer patients treated with traditional chemotherapy."
although the study is small, these preliminary results are encouraging and we hope to conduct a larger clinical trial to see if the treatment responds better and is better than traditional therapies, " he said.
" clinical trial is currently in the follow-up phase of the study.
pancreatic cancer is an invasive disease with a high mortality rate.
the third leading cause of cancer death in the United States, after lung and colorectal cancer.
2020, the five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer is 10%, up from 6% in 2014.
next step in this clinical study will be to compare this COMBAT combination therapy with other treatments such as 5-fluorouracine, leucovorin, and nanolipid ilithion in future studies.
(bioon.com) Reference: 1. Bruno Bockorny et al. BL-8040, a CXCR4 antagonist, insy with pembrolizumab and cymry for pancreatic: cancer: the COMBAT trial. Nature Medicine, 2020, doi:10.1038/s41591-020-0880-x.2.Study' preliminary results show response of 32% in treatment of pancre tumors.