Kunle Odunsi, MD, PhD, FRCOG, FACOG, Deputy Director of Roswell Park Cancer Institute, gave an update about an ongoing clinical trial at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 53rd Annual Meeting.

Dr. Odunsi, who is also Chair of Gynecologic Oncology and Executive Director of the Center for Immunotherapy at Roswell Park, will report on the status and methods of the clinical study, which is assessing the safety and antitumor activity of an approach that employs T–cell engineering to stimulate the immune system against ovarian cancer.

The clinical study is being conducted in collaboration with researchers from City of Hope, the Stanford Cancer Institute, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, the University of Miami and Adaptimmune Therapeutics.

The premise behind the ongoing phase I/II clinical trial in patients with recurrent or treatment–resistant ovarian cancer is to use T–cell engineering to “teach” a patient’s own immune system to recognize and attack the ovarian cancer cells. After patients receive a lymphodepleting chemotherapy regimen, their T cells are isolated, expanded, transduced with a lentiviral vector containing specialized T–cell receptors (TCRs) – specifically, the NY–ESO–1c259 TCRs – and then infused intravenously.

“There is a pressing need for new therapies for ovarian cancer and for epithelial ovarian cancer in particular,” says Dr. Odunsi, who holds an additional faculty appointment at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo. “We’re pleased to be able to detail our progress on this study for our colleagues around the country and around the world.”

The poster was titled, “A phase I/IIa, open label, clinical trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of autologous T cells expressing enhanced TCRs specific for NY–ESO–1 in patients with recurrent or treatment refractory ovarian cancer (NCT01567891).”