Clinical trials launched recently at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center — one exclusive to Roswell Park and the other offered at only eight sites nationwide — focus on new approaches.
Phase 1/1b clinical trial evaluates WTX-124, designed to harness and boost the power of cytokines
Two main challenges have restricted the potential of the cytokine-based immunotherapy interleukin 2 (IL-2): first, its short half-life limits tumor exposure, and second, it can bind to receptors in peripheral tissues, resulting in treatment-associated side effects.
Werewolf Therapeutics hopes to overcome those challenges with the introduction of WTX-124, their proprietary IL-2 INDUKINE molecule currently being evaluated in a phase 1/1b clinical trial at Roswell Park and seven other sites in the U.S. The molecules are engineered to extend the half-life of the cytokines so they remain in circulation and extend the time of tumor exposure.
They are also designed to reduce toxicity by preventing the cytokines from binding to receptors in healthy tissue. However, once inside the tumor microenvironment, tumor-specific proteases activate the INDUKINE molecules to trigger native signaling pathways to induce a pro-inflammatory, targeted anti-tumor response. At this point, the activated cytokine reverts to its original brief half-life so it will clear from the body rapidly.
Igor Puzanov, MD, MSCI, FACP, Senior Vice President, Clinical Investigation; Director, Center for Early Phase Clinical Trials; Chief, Early Phase Clinical Trials Division; and Chief, Melanoma Section at Roswell Park, serves as site principal investigator at Roswell Park for a dose-escalation clinical trial (NCT05479812) that is evaluating WTX-124 both as a monotherapy and in combination with pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in patients with select advanced or metastatic solid tumors.
“These patients face a very poor prognosis,” says Dr. Puzanov. “WTX-124 represents a new approach to immunotherapy that we hope will…
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