Development of a cell immunotherapy targeting non-conventional tumor antigens in ovarian cancer

Introduction

Ovarian cancer represents the most lethal gynecological cancer and one of the deadliest cancers in women globally. It affected more than 800,000 women worldwide in 2022 and killed 207,000 the same year, with 25,000 deaths occurring in Europe. A woman's risk of getting ovarian cancer during her lifetime is about 1 in 78.

Challenges in Early Detection

Due to the non-specific nature of the symptoms, it is hard to detect ovarian cancer early. Currently, there is a lack of effective screening tools for an early diagnosis. Consequently, 75% of patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage, leading to poor outcomes and significantly reducing their chances for survival: only 30-40% survive five years after diagnosis.

Limitations of Current Treatments

Even though several treatments are currently approved for ovarian cancer, they present several limitations and fail to meet the high medical need. Indeed, 2/3 of patients do not respond to available treatments or relapse after first- and second-line treatment.

Innovative Solution by ErVaccine

ErVaccine aims to provide an innovative solution by developing a new generation of TCR-T cell therapy targeting non-conventional antigens. With its advanced proprietary bioinformatic platform, ErVaccine successfully identified antigens derived from human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) that exhibit abnormal expression exclusively in cancer cells and are shared by a high proportion of patients.

Development of TCR-OV1

From this work, the company developed TCR-OV1, a TCR-T cell therapy with a demonstrated efficacy profile in in vitro and ovarian cancer animal models. We expect no major safety concerns as we did not observe any toxicity in our preclinical models, based on the specific HERV expression in the tumors.

Future Plans

Now, ErVaccine wants to accelerate the development of its solution by scaling up its small-scale manufacturing process and demonstrating the efficacy and safety of TCR-OV1 in humans.

Potential Impact

TCR-OV1 has the potential to be a transformative therapy for ovarian cancer, being the first safe and efficient TCR-T cell therapy in this indication.