Agenus : Brain Cancer Vaccine Shows Extended Survival In Phase 2 Study; Stock Up

(RTTNews) - Agenus Inc. (AGEN) announced final results from a single-arm, multi-institutional, open-label, Phase 2 study showing that patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme or GBM who received Agenus' Prophage autologous cancer vaccine added to the standard of care treatment, lived nearly twice as long as expected.

The company stated that, in this Phase 2 study, 50% of the patients lived for two years, an encouraging result for a cancer that often kills patients within one year. Prophage patients demonstrated a median overall survival of approximately 24 months and 33% of patients remain alive at 2 years and continue to be followed for survival.

"These data suggest that Prophage is generating an effective immune response which is translating into an extension in survival far beyond what is historically seen in patients with GBM. These data provide the impetus for a definitive, randomized clinical trial," said Andrew Parsa, Principal Investigator of the study and the Michael Marchese Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University.

In addition to the long-term survival data, the company noted that vaccine treated patients had a median progression-free survival or PFS of nearly 18 months, approximately two to three-times longer than patients treated with radiation and temozolomide alone. Importantly, 22% of patients were alive and without progression at 24 months and continue to be followed for survival.

The response to Prophage seems to be more pronounced in those patients with less expression of the checkpoint ligand PDL-1 on the white blood cells, suggesting that combinations of Prophage with checkpoint modulators like PD-1 antagonists might make Prophage even more effective in a greater percentage of patients with GBM, the company said.

Prophage is an autologous cancer vaccine, and each patient receives vaccine prepared from their own surgically resected tumor. As a result, the vaccine appears to help stimulate the patient's immune system to attack the tumor based on the spectrum of mutant proteins expressed by their own tumor.

AGEN closed Monday's trading at $3.22. In Tuesday's pre-market trading, the company's shares are up $0.52 or 16.15 percent to $3.74.