ASCO 2023: A Vaccine Therapy in Development for AML

Dr. Omer Jamy is an AML expert and bone marrow transplant physician at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. At the 2023 ASCO conference, he shared details with HealthTree about his open phase 3 study looking at a new vaccine therapy that targets the Wilms tumor 1 (WT1) protein, the top immunotherapy target in cancer treatment. 

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Video Summary

WT1 has emerged as an encouraging vaccine target in AML due to its overexpression in AML cells. Dr. Jamy is involved in a randomized phase 3 study for patients with AML in second remission or beyond that randomizes patients to receive either a vaccine called galinpepimut-S (GPS) or the physician's choice of the best available therapy. GPS is a vaccine that works againsts WT1, a protein expressed on AML cells. There is early data from phase 2 studies and pre-clinical data that show this vaccine can be a therapy that keeps people in remission if they are unable to proceed to a stem cell transplant. Because there are not many standard of care treatment options available for patients who cannot undergo transplant, if successful, Dr. Jamy’s phase 3 study could fill the gap for this subset of patients. This study is currently enrolling and will enroll between 120 to 140 patients. The study is taking place at 50 centers with plans to open an additional 20 internationally.