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Anixa Biosciences Announces Opening of Enrollment for Keytruda® Arm in Ongoing Breast Cancer Vaccine Clinical Trial
SAN JOSE, Calif., Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Anixa Biosciences, Inc. ("Anixa" or the "Company") (NASDAQ: ANIX), a biotechnology company focused on the
About this update from Anixa Biosciences, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"SAN JOSE, Calif., Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Anixa Biosciences, Inc. (\"Anixa\" or the \"Company\") (NASDAQ: ANIX), a biotechnology company focused on the treatment and prevention of cancer, today announced that its partner, Cleveland Clinic, has begun enrolling subjects in a treatment arm evaluating the combination of the Company's breast cancer vaccine with Keytruda® (pembrolizumab). An expansion of the ongoing Phase 1 dose escalation trial of Anixa's breast cancer vaccine, this treatment arm aims to determine if the vaccine/Keytruda combination increases immune response.\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \nAnixa's breast cancer vaccine is designed to generate T cells that target triple negative breast cancer (\"TNBC\"). Keytruda, a therapy marketed by Merck (NYSE: MRK), is approved for use with chemotherapy before surgery and then alone after surgery to treat both high-risk early-stage and advanced TNBC. \nKeytruda is a type of immunotherapy known as a checkpoint inhibitor. T cells, a type of white blood cell involved in the body's immune system, have receptor proteins on their surface called checkpoints. These checkpoints are utilized by other immune cells to modulate the activity of T cells. Cancer cells, such as TNBC cells, have developed mechanisms to target checkpoints to inhibit the activity of T cells, as well as other immune cells. This inhibition enables the cancer cells to escape destruction by cytotoxic T cells. One of these key checkpoint receptors is known as PD-1 (Programmed Cell Death Protein-1). TNBC, like many other cancers, expresses a protein that binds to the PD-1 protein on T cells and essentially turns them \"off.\" Keytruda is a monoclonal antibody, which blocks the ability of the cancer cells to inactivate T cells by shielding the PD-1 receptor.\nDr. Amit Kumar, Chairman and CEO of Anixa stated, \"Cleveland Clinic has demonstrated in both preclinical and clinical studies that our breast cancer vaccine induces an immune response–including, we believe, production of T cells that can target TNBC–so we believe that the addition of Keytruda could have a synergistic effect. If a vaccine induces the creation of T cells targeting TNBC, and Keytruda generally maintains T cell activity, the combination could be very potent. We are grateful to the U.S. Department of Defense for providing the funding for this new arm of t...