Blood stem cell transplant after high‑dose chemotherapy is standard care and can be curative for aggressive lymphoma. However, this approach often causes severe toxicity and life‑threatening complications due to delayed blood system recovery and vascular damage.
Today, the CIRM Board funded a Phase 3 clinical trial to advance a safer, more tolerable alternative.
CIRM Funding 86 clinical trials
The Board awarded $15 million to Dr. Paul Finnegan and Angiocrine Bioscience to test AB‑205, human endothelial cells engineered to express a pro‑survival factor.
Earlier data suggest that during chemotherapy and stem cell transplant, AB‑205 can speed blood system recovery. It can also reduce toxicity by repairing vascular damage. AB‑205 is now being studied in a Phase 3 trial in adults. The trial includes adults with lymphoma receiving high‑dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplant.
“If successful, this approach can overcome major hurdles in chemotherapy and blood stem cell transplantation for advanced blood cancers,” said Dr. Maria T. Millan, CIRM President and CEO. “This Phase 3 trial builds on preclinical work and the early clinical study previously funded by CIRM.”
Lymphoma is the most common blood cancer in the U.S., making up about 4% of all cancers and the sixth most diagnosed cancer in California. An estimated 89,010 new U.S. cases and 21,170 deaths were expected in 2022. In California alone, more than 9,250 new cases and over 2,100 deaths were projected.
“Angiocrine Bioscience is honored to receive this CIRM grant to support our AB‑205 Phase 3 trial,” said CEO Dr. Paul Finnegan. “CIRM has been an instrumental partner in developing AB‑205, a therapy that acts on patients’ endogenous stem cell niches. This award will significantly help us address the unmet need of transplant‑related complications.”
Cancer patients undergoing high dose chemotherapy require bone marrow transplantation to improve their immunity. However, the delayed of blood system development, vascularization and recovery of immunity, may cut short the survival rates of patients. Interestingly, supplement of AB205 may give additional advantage for cancer patients with high dose chemotherapy to improve their immunity and survived for longer lives . The main concern factor is autologues stem cells transplantation may put patients at high risk of cancer to relapse.
During the process of embryogenesis, fertilization between the egg and spermatozoa produces zygote, which is the first of a kind of human cell containing the genetic information from both paternal and maternal. The first human cell may involve many division process or embryogenesis to produce many different types of cells, tissues and organs for embryo formation. Hence, all cells of an embryo constitute the whole sets of gene that are similar to the precursor one and the expression of different sets of gene produce different types of cell, tissue and organ. Therefore, isolation of stem cells or iPSCs from those cancer patients may containing mutated gene which can be triggered for tumor formation.
As cancers are heterogeneous, they have no stable of genotype and phenotype. Thus, autologous stem cells may inherit the mutated gene which may induce cancer to become more progressive and metastatic. Therefore, the careful isolation of healthy stem cells for cell based therapy may improve clinical outcome of cancer patients to survive longer and healthy.