Immuno-oncology
Increasing the therapeutic efficacy of immunotherapies using Acoustic Cluster Therapy (ACT®)
Enhancing immune response in solid tumours with ACT®
Stimulating immune reactions and enhancing delivery of immunotherapy to solid tumours
Immunotherapy has become a central pillar of cancer therapy, with immune check point inhibitors (ICIs) that reactivate preexisting anticancer immunity (i.e., immunologically “hot” tumours) taking centre stage
Unfortunately, only a minority of patients benefit from ICIs and biomarker-based selection of patients is being pursued to determine who are more likely to respond (have “hot” tumours)
However, this population is small among all cancer patients and the future of cancer immunotherapy is expected to be combination therapies that induces multiple hits on cancers and achieve synergistic effects
Immunotherapy
Pre-clinical trials
EXACT Therapeutics has a ongoing four-year collaborative research programme, funded by a $1.5M (NOK 16M) grant, with Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), and Norwegian University of Science and Technology, to explore effects of ACT® on the tumour microenvironment – reason to believe that:
• ACT® can render immunologically “cold” tumours “hot” (convert non-responders to responders)
• ACT® can improve the therapeutic effect of ICIs (enhance or prolong the anti-cancer response)
Immunotherapy, in particular checkpoint inhibitors, are emerging as ground-breaking cancer treatment. However, efficacy is often hampered by insufficient delivery to the target tissue.
By increasing the delivery and making non-responsive tumours respond to treatment many more patients could benefit from immunotherapy.
Anti-PD1 + ACT
No immune cells or Anti-PD1 in tumour
Immune cells and Anti-PD1 in tumour
Turning non-responsive tumours responsive
The potential immune stimulatory effect of ACT will be studied in three tumour models breast, colon and pancreatic cancer. Besides the therapeutic outcome, the effect ACT has on the tumour tissue and the immune system will be studied assessing the infiltration and location of immune cells, distribution of immune checkpoint inhibitors, vascular response.
Our collaborators
In December of 2022, EXACT-Tx was awarded NOK 16 million from the Norwegian Research Council (NRC) to support the research of immunotherapy responses in solid tumours with Acoustic Cluster Therapy (ACT®). The research project is in collaboration with three renowned academic partners; Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) (Norway), Institute of Cancer Research (ICR)/ Royal Marsden Hospital (UK) and Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen)(USA).
