欧美极品 — The Cancer Research Institute celebrates yesterday鈥檚 announcement of the first therapeutic cancer vaccine to receive approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The vaccine, called Provenge, is produced by Seattle biotech company Dendreon (NASDAQ:DNDN) and is designed to treat certain forms of advanced prostate cancer.
鈥淭he approval of a vaccine to treat cancer is a victory in the history of cancer therapy, and signals the beginning of a new era in cancer medicine,鈥� said Jill O鈥橠onnell-Tormey, Ph.D., executive director of the U.S.-based Cancer Research Institute (CRI), a nonprofit organization founded in 1953 that has provided decades of significant support to cancer immunology researchers around the world so that the development of cancer immunotherapies such as Dendreon鈥檚 Provenge might one day be possible.
鈥淥ur organization was the first to explore the immune system and its relationship to cancer,鈥� O鈥橠onnell-Tormey said. CRI founder Helen Coley Nauts established the Institute in 1953 after she became convinced of the promising medical discoveries of her father, a surgeon practicing medicine in New York from the late 1800s to early 1900s named William B. Coley, M.D., who had found a way to stimulate anti-tumor immune responses in inoperable cancer patients. 鈥淪ince then, we have invested all our resources鈥攎ore than $200 million dollars鈥攊n providing scientists with the means to unlock the power of our immune system to fight cancer.鈥�
Similar to many other promising cancer immunotherapies currently under development around the globe, Provenge attempts to harness the body鈥檚 natural ability to fight cancer by mobilizing the immune system to find and eliminate cancer cells. Because most of these treatments target specific molecular markers that can distinguish cancer cells, they have the potential to eliminate tumors without causing many of the negative side effects associated with chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and surgery.
The final approval of Dendreon鈥檚 vaccine was based on a large, phase III clinical trial where Provenge showed a statistically significant improvement in overall survival of men with metastatic hormone-resistant prostate cancer. Dendreon鈥檚 study of 512 men demonstrated that when compared to a placebo, Provenge increased three-year survival by 38 percent and extended median overall survival by 4.1 months.
As a first generation therapeutic cancer vaccine, Provenge demonstrates important proof-of-principle for this emerging class of active cancer immunotherapies. However, most experts in the field would agree that scientists are just beginning to scratch the surface of these vaccines鈥� full therapeutic potential.
CRI Scientific Advisory Council director Lloyd J. Old, M.D., a pioneer responsible for many seminal discoveries in the field, is a senior expert in tumor immunology who for the past four decades has guided the scientific vision for CRI and who currently leads the Institute鈥檚 global cancer vaccine research programs.
鈥淭he FDA approval of Provenge is a landmark for the field of cancer immunology and immunotherapy, adding strength to the concept of immunological control of cancer and demonstrating the commercial viability of the approach,鈥� Old stated. 鈥淭he challenge now is to maximize the effectiveness of cancer vaccines such as Provenge by incorporating all we have learned in recent years about the immune response to cancer and cancer vaccine development, converting the four-month survival advantage of Provenge-vaccinated patients into prolonged鈥攅ven lifelong鈥攃ontrol of the disease.鈥�
Old, who also heads the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR) New York Branch and has served for many years as director of LICR鈥檚 worldwide scientific programs, says that, eventually, vaccines will treat a wide variety of cancer types, recruiting the immune system to stop the progression of patients鈥� tumors and helping to fully stabilizing the disease.
鈥淏ased on the clinical evidence we鈥檝e gathered over the past decade in our cancer vaccine trials,鈥� Old said, 鈥渁nd in light of data from a variety of trials by others within the field, we believe therapeutic cancer vaccines will increasingly emerge as one of the safest and most powerful ways to combat a variety of cancers.鈥�
In an effort to accelerate the development, refinement, and approval of more cancer immunotherapies, the Cancer Research Institute has a developed a comprehensive strategy that draws upon several complementary resources and programs.
First, in 2001, CRI formed a partnership with the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research to develop the Cancer Vaccine Collaborative (CVC)鈥攁 centralized, academic, global network of clinical trial sites, immune monitoring laboratories, and clinic-grade, GMP cancer vaccine production facilities. Since the program鈥檚 inception, CVC investigators have treated nearly 700 cancer patients in more than 40 early phase clinical trials of therapeutic cancer vaccines.
Most recently, CRI has launched a new 鈥渧enture philanthropy鈥� program called the Cancer Vaccine Acceleration Fund (CVAF) as a means to catalyze development of next-generation therapeutic cancer vaccines and other immunotherapies by helping to address the critical shortage of capital available for early stage clinical trials. CVAF identifies the most promising cancer vaccines in global development and then works to provide significant funding and access to the CVC clinical trials network to ensure that these important new medicines can move smoothly into and through early phase clinical trials.
Complementing these research efforts are those of the Cancer Immunotherapy Consortium (CIC), which is now a program of the Cancer Research Institute. With a membership that includes representatives from biotech and pharmaceutical companies as well as academia, the CIC provides a platform aimed at making cancer immunotherapies part of the standard-of-care in oncology by finding solutions to scientific and developmental challenges.
Through the CIC program, the Cancer Research Institute conducts a number of important initiatives that seek among other things to build consensus across the field on key issues, to develop and implement new standards for carrying out and reporting immunological monitoring assays of therapeutic cancer vaccines, and to establish and promote the adoption of new criteria for evaluating the clinical impact of cancer immunotherapies.
鈥淭hrough these interdependent programs as well as a variety of other initiatives designed to engender partnerships and foster cross-sector collaboration within the field, Cancer Research Institute will continue to be an engine of innovation and a source of leadership to the field,鈥� O鈥橠onnell-Tormey said.
鈥淲ith the celebrated landmark approval of the first therapeutic cancer vaccine now here after decades of anticipation,鈥� Old commented, 鈥淐RI and the field look forward to the oncoming wave of new immunotherapies that are making their way steadily toward the oncologist鈥檚 arsenal of weapons against cancer.鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 a remarkable time for the field and for cancer patients,鈥� O鈥橠onnell-Tormey stated. 鈥淚 can honestly say that in my 23 years at the Cancer Research Institute, I have never been more excited about the potential for cancer immunotherapy to revolutionize the way we think about cancer, the way we treat it, and the way we live with it. Provenge is just the beginning, and there is much more in store for the near future.鈥�
About the Cancer Research InstituteThe Cancer Research Institute (CRI) is the world鈥檚 only non-profit organization dedicated exclusively to the support and coordination of scientific and clinical efforts that will lead to the immunological treatment, control, and prevention of cancer. Guided by a world-renowned Scientific Advisory Council that includes four Nobel Prize winners and twenty-nine members of the National Academy of Sciences, CRI supports leading-edge cancer research at top medical centers and universities throughout the world. The Cancer Research Institute is ushering in a new era of scientific progress, hastening the discovery of effective cancer vaccines and other immune-based therapies that are providing new hope to cancer patients.
The Cancer Research Institute has one of the lowest overhead expense ratios among non-profit organizations, with more than 85 percent of its resources going directly to the support of its science, medical, and research programs. CRI meets or exceeds all 20 standards of the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance, the most comprehensive U.S. charity evaluation service, and according to Charity Navigator exceeds or meets industry standards and performs as well as or better than most cancer charities. CRI has also received an 'A' grade for fiscal disclosure and efficiency from the American Institute of Philanthropy as well as top accolades from other charity watchdog organizations. For more information, visit .
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