A Publication for Baylor Scott & White Health ’ s Oncology Program
Dr . Zurawski , one of the authors of the study , said HPV typically starts as a mild infection . “ But the virus can remain latent . In a significant number of cases , the virus has the ability , over time , to cause some cells that are infected to become cancerous ,” he said .
According to the CDC , HPV is thought to be responsible for more than 90 percent of anal and cervical cancers , about 70 percent of vaginal and vulvar cancers , and more than 60 percent of penile cancers . Cancers of the head and neck are
While this vaccine is currently in preclinical testing at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas for head and neck cancer , this technology holds the promise of benefiting patients with other types of cancer as well . According to the paper in Cancer Immunology Research , “ Data from this study strongly support the development of CD40- targeting vaccines for other cancers in the future .”
Dr . Zurawski expects to start production soon of the HPV vaccine that will be administered to humans . Vaccine manufacturing will be performed by the Baylor Scott & White Health production facility in Temple , Texas , part of the Scott & White Cancer Institute .
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Immune Therapies Against Cancer
Figure 2 . Targeting CD40 for HPV-Related Cancer
often caused by tobacco and alcohol . However , according to the CDC , recent studies show that about 70 percent of cancers of the oropharynx may be linked to HPV and that many cancers of the oropharynx may be caused by a combination of tobacco , alcohol and HPV .
“ CD40 is a potent activating receptor on the dendritic cells that gets the T-cells really excited , and in some cases , proliferating ,” Dr . Zurawski said . “ Studies at BIIR have found that activation of the CD40 receptor is particularly good at programming a kind of immune response that gets a type of T-cell called cytotoxic lymphocytes , or CD8 T-cells , expanded in an antigen-specific manner .”
Adapted from Cancer Immunology Research 2016 Oct ; 4 ( 10 ): 823-834
Baylor Scott & White Research Institute ( BSWRI ) is contracting with Charles River Laboratories in Scotland to perform preclinical safety studies and has licensed the intellectual property to BSWRI-owned Denceptor Therapeutics Limited in Cambridge , England . Denceptor will generate investments to fund this and possibly other dendritic celltargeting vaccines to address other types of cancer .
“ We anticipate that this will bring new cancer clinical trials with dendritic celltargeting vaccines to Baylor University Medical Center ,” Dr . Zurawski said . “ The idea of the company [ Denceptor ] is to provide money to allow development of early phase clinical trials of a number of different dendritic cell-targeting vaccine approaches .”
If those trials are successful , he said , BSWRI and Denceptor should be able to attract pharmaceutical partners that would enable later-phase clinical trials . These trials hopefully would lead to approval by the US Food and Drug Administration and eventual commercialization .
“ The next cancer types being considered for similar dendritic cell-targeting vaccines are breast cancer and pancreatic cancer ,” Dr . Zurawski said .