This is a significant milestone for Scancell as the data moves towards validating Scancell’s cancer vaccine platforms.

The trial assesses Scancell’s ImmunoBody DNA cancer vaccine SCIB1 in patients with advanced unresectable melanoma in combination with standard-of-care which are checkpoint inhibitors (CPIs). The aim of the study was to work out if the addition of SCIB1 can improve the objective response rate (The ORR is defined as the proportion of patients with a complete or partial response at any time after the start of treatment) versus the current standard of care.

Of the 16 patients that have received SCIB1 in combination with CPIs, 11 patients reached 13 weeks on trial and have been evaluated.

Some of the highlights include:

  • 9 out of these 11 pts have shown an objective response equating to an ORR of 82% with no increase in toxicity. This is better than the trial’s target and better than the 50% ORR reported in patients receiving current standard of care alone.
  • In addition, a 69%-94% reduction in tumour volume was seen for the 4 patients who reached the 25 weeks evaluation and an 87%-94% reduction for the 2 patients who reached the 37 weeks evaluation.

The SCOPE trial is now entering its second phase (27 more patients) in which Scancell will aim to continue to demonstrate these results in a larger patient cohort.

Recruitment is expected to be completed by the end of this year, with data in 1H24.

Prof Poulam Patel, Chief Investigator, added: “These results, if confirmed in a larger cohort, will be a significant improvement on what patients can expect from available treatment today. We look forward to continuing the second stage of the study and reporting further data in due course.”

Prof Lindy Durrant, Chief Executive Officer of Scancell, commented: “We are excited by these highly impressive results for SCIB1 combined with the doublet CPI therapy. We thought results from the Phase 1/2 trial evaluating SCIB1 as a monotherapy were positive but results from this combination are even more meaningful. Previous studies indicated that a response rate of 50% was the best that could be achieved in the real world setting for patients with unresectable metastatic melanoma, as no other combination had improved on the response rates for doublet CPI alone. Confirmation of this data in a larger cohort could make a significant impact on melanoma patient survival, especially as melanoma is now one of the most common cancers in young women.”