HANOVER, Germany--()--A therapeutic vaccine developed by the German company VPM to battle prostate cancer promises new hope for cancer patients. The results of a successfully completed clinical study will be presented to an international audience at the Annual Conference of the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago, USA. ASCO is the most important professional organization of cancer specialists world-wide.
The active substance VPM4001, an immunotherapeutic for cancer treatment, has reached an important stage of development: A clinical phase I/II study with 30 patients successfully completed in 2006 showed that 73 % of patients suffering from advanced, hormone-resistant prostate carcinoma responded positively to the VPM4001 therapy. The primary study parameter, the PSA doubling time, was increased from 63 days to 114 days on average. This promising result has a high statistical significance (p=0.0035). VPM4001 also showed an excellent tolerability profile. The study was carried out at the Institute for Experimental Oncology (Prof. Dr. med. B. Gänsbacher) and at the Clinic for Urology (Prof. Dr. med. R. Hartung) of Munich Technical University.
The new vaccine will support the immune system to fight cancer. Based on the promising results, a panel of international experts from the USA, Germany and the Netherlands has recommended the continuation of clinical development of the vaccine as fast as possible. Prostate cancer is the most frequent type of tumor affecting male patients aged 50+ and also the third most frequent cause of death resulting from cancer disease. Each year approx. 420,000 people in Europe and in the USA are affected by prostate cancer. The life-time risk of becoming affected by prostate cancer is 1:6.
VPM4001 is an ideal example for the development of innovative vaccines initiated by VPM. This has lead to the development project being introduced at this year’s congress of the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago, USA. VPM globally has a number of exclusive licenses for promising vaccines, with a group of other projects in the pipeline. VPM4001 has been licensed from Sloan Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, New York. VPM’s products are developed in cooperation with experienced partner companies which provide the required technological and scientific expertise. This allows for the more rapid and more successful international development of products.
Vakzine Projekt Management GmbH
VPM (Vakzine Projekt Management GmbH, Hanover, Germany, www.vakzine-manager.de) develops vaccines and biopharmaceuticals. VPM is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF).
About American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO)
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