London-Brisbane vaccine research extended to kidney cancer

Having secured patent coverage for its vaccine technology, London-based Onyvax will extend its collaboration with researchers from the Queensland University of Technology and the Princess Alexandra Hospital, Queensland Premier Peter Beattie has announced.

Beattie said that the two-year, $800,000 program - which currently covers prostate tumour cell lines – would now include tissues and cells from patients with kidney cancer and other malignancies.

"Onyvax uses tumour tissue collected from Australian patients in their search for generalised vaccines for cancers,” he said.

"The current vaccine, Onyvax-P, has shown excellent interim data from a current phase II trial, with cancers in almost half of the men suffering from prostate cancer being slowed. It is due to enter phase III clinical trials later this year.”

Onyvax's vaccines target a broad range of cancer-related or cancer specific antigens found on the surface of cancer cells. Tumour cells mutate over time, and the vaccines have been developed to trigger an immune response to a repetoire of tumour cells associated with different stages of a cancer.

Professor Judith Clements, Program Leader at QUT's Hormone-Dependent Cancer Program, explained that the first generation vaccine which Onyvax had used in the clinical trials was a combination of four prostate tumour cell lines.

“[Onyvax] came to us and others to get novel cancer cell lines that would reflect more broadly cancer prostate tumors,” she said.

“From Onyvax’s point of view they will want a broad spectrum of those – they are looking at the molecular profile of the tumour cells.”

“What we do is grow out the cells and send them to London, where they see if they can be immortalised and if there is the potential for them to be used in a vaccine.”

“We’ve extended the cancer’s we’re looking at from prostate to kidney because we’re doing so well with prostate [tumour cell lines].”

A dedicated research facility has been set up at the Princess Alexandra Hospital to conduct the research, and several new scientific jobs have been created to work on the project.

The Onyvax research agreement runs until August, and Prof Clements believes that the results of the collaboration so far bode well for a renewal. “We’re looking to extend it and things look very promising so far,” she said.