For more than two decades, scientists have explored a group of cancer drugs known as CD40 agonist antibodies.
Early experiments suggested these treatments could strongly activate the immune system and help it destroy cancer cells.
Results from the phase 1 clinical trial of the modified drug, called 2141-V11, have now been published in the journal Cancer Cell.
The trial involved 12 people with several types of metastatic cancer, including melanoma, renal cell carcinoma, and different forms of breast cancer.
"The drug creates an immune microenvironment within the tumor, and essentially replaces the tumor with these tertiary lymphoid structures.".
"Once the immune system identifies the cancer cells, immune cells migrate to the non-injected tumor sites," Osorio explains.
Current phase 1 and phase 2 trials are testing 2141-V11 against several difficult-to-treat cancers, including bladder cancer, prostate cancer, and glioblastoma. »