Title:Innovations in pancreatic cancer research

In the past decade, immunotherapy has offered breakthrough therapies for many cancers that had previously been considered difficult—or even impossible—to treat. One cancer that has eluded the promise of immunotherapy so far, however, has been pancreatic cancer.

This highly aggressive cancer has few treatment options; in most cases, it’s caught too late for surgery, and neither immunotherapy nor radiation are effective, leaving only two toxic chemotherapy cocktails in oncologists’ arsenals. As a result, it’s among the deadliest of cancers, ranking as the third leading cause of cancer deaths, even though it’s relatively rare.

One reason immunotherapy isn’t effective is because pancreatic cancer features so-called “cold” tumors that are not detectable by the immune system.

Now, for the first time, new research by Georgetown scientists shows potential to make immunotherapy effective in pancreatic cancer. The research team, led by Louis Weiner, is using an agent called BXCL701 to “heat up” cold tumors by altering the tumor microenvironment, making it more receptive to immune cells.

The research is now in a phase 2 clinical trial being tested in people.

“In addition to activating the immune system, this drug has the ability to make it easier for immune cells to maneuver around the tumor, because there isn’t as much collagen blocking their way,” says Weiner.

Weiner’s research is supported in part by BioXcel Therapeutics, Inc., the company developing BXCL701. Support for his work is also provided by the Edwin and Linda Siegel Family Foundation. The clinical trial is supported by BioXcel Therapeutics, Inc. and Merck.