The study involves Lucanix®, which is administered as a vaccine. It’s made from irradiated gene-modified tumor cells. The purpose is to see how well it works compared with a placebo in treating patients with late stage non-small cell lung cancer.
“We want to see if this therapy retrains the patient's immune system to recognize and kill the cancer cells,” said principal investigator Michael Slaughter, M.D., Ph.D, a member of St. Francis Medical Group. “Earlier published test results of Lucanix have shown the survival of patients was double at two years, compared to historic controls – an encouraging outcome not previously seen in advanced lung-cancer patients.”
Slaughter is among a group of top oncologists testing Lucanix, which is manufactured by NovaRx Corp. Similar studies are being conducted throughout the
Slaughter is joined by several St. Francis sub-investigators, including Stephen Eberwine, M.D.; Nadeem Ikhlaque, M.D.; Mary Lou Mayer, M.D.; Stephen Eric Rubenstein, M.D.; Subhash Sharma, M.D.; and Gregory W Smith, M.D.
To be considered for the trial, patients must be between the ages of 18 and 75; have stage IIIA, IIIB, and IV non-small-cell lung cancer; and have completed platinum-based chemotherapy but did not progress on it.
Gene transfer is the process of inserting new laboratory-modified genes into a patient. Many scientists this type of therapy might be an effective way to treat certain health problems.
