Victories and deceptions in tumor immunology: Stimuvax(?)

摘要

The last year closed with negative news for tumor immunology. Stimuvax?, an investigational therapeutic anticancer vaccine that Merck licensed from the US biotech firm Oncothyreon, failed to increase overall survival in a Phase III clinical trial designed to evaluate its efficacy in a cohort of non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) patients.1 Stimuvax?, also known as L-BLP25 or BLP25, is a liposomal vaccine conceived to generate an immune response against mucin 1 (MUC1), a cell-surface glycosylated phosphoprotein that is frequently overexpressed by epithelial tumors, including NSCLC as well as breast, colorectal and pancreatic carcinomas. The failure of this Phase III clinical trial may be attributed to multiple distinct causes.