Incysus Therapeutics Inc. has received permission to begin testing a new cancer treatment in patients at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
The new drug-resistant immunotherapy program is based on delivering gamma-delta T cell immunotherapy to patients newly diagnosed with glioblastoma.
Glioblastoma multiforme is a devastating and fast-growing brain tumor that typically results in death within 15 months after diagnosis. And, it is resistant to most conventional therapy.
The Incysus DRI approach seeks to combine conventional chemotherapy with the new gamma-delta T cell immunotherapy “to modify the tumor microenvironment and drive the immune system.”
One of the challenges to treating cancers is that chemotherapies also kill white blood cells needed to drive an immune response. Incysus’ technology is designed to keep immune cells functional.
“I am excited to have taken our DRI platform from discovery and now into cancer patients as a novel approach for a devastating disease with few treatment options,” says Lawrence Lamb, PhD, one of the inventors of the new therapy, who is also the scientific co-founder and chief scientific officer of Incysus. “We look forward to advancing our programs as we seek to address the unmet needs of oncology patients.”
L. Burt Nabors, MD, who is co-head of neuro-oncology at UAB and principal investigator for the study, adds, “The initiation of this clinical trial represents a significant milestone towards developing effective immune-based therapies for the treatment of GBM. We are pleased to work with Dr. Lamb and the team at Incysus to bring this innovative therapy to patients for the first time.”
Patients may learn more about the clinical trial from the National Institutes of Health or here.
Incysus, with offices in New York and Birmingham, has a long-standing relationship with UAB, and Lamb served on the medical school faculty before taking the leadership role at Incysus.
