Galena Biopharma reports NeuVax data for preventing breast cancer

Galena Biopharma said earlier today that it presented data from the Phase 1/2 clinical trial of NeuVax at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer. The results showed a total of 26 patients receiving NeuVax had at least two CTC measurements made during the vaccine treatment. In 16/26 NeuVax treated patients, the CTCs decreased during the time of treatment, corresponding with an increase in the patients' E75-specific CD8+ cytotoxic T-lymphocytes and an increase in their delayed type hypersensitivity reactions. DTH is the measurable signal on the skin that the patient is immunologically responding to treatment. None of these patients had a recurrence of their cancer during the five year follow-up period. Data presented indicate that vaccine treated patients were more likely to show a decrease in CTCs than control patients, Galena said. Investigators concluded that the "results lend credence to the notion that breast cancer is a chronic disease and that monitoring CTC trends may be clinically useful in the adjuvant setting as a surrogate for response to vaccine treatment," it added.