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Tumors depend on a growing net of blood vessels. Cancer cells get oxygen and nutrients through these vessels. A new therapy is meant to cut off tumors from these blood vessels. For the time, an oral immunotherapy is tested in a Phase-2a study with 24 patients with advanced large colon cancer. The clinical study is conducted at the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Heidelberg in cooperation with the University Hospital Heidelberg. Patients with inoperable colon cancer and liver metastases with two priorly failed therapies can enroll.  The patients will have to remain in the region of Heidelberg during the time of treatment.

The NCT Heidelberg is a joint institution of the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), the University Hospital Heidelberg and the German Cancer Aid.

Requests can be sent via E-mail to the Patientenzentrum  „Medizinische Onkologie“ at the  NCT: nct.patientenzentrum@med.uni-heidelberg.de, in charge of the study: PD. Dr. Carsten Grüllich

Only patients who fulfill the inclusion criteria can participate in the study. Study-inclusion will be determined by the study physician.

Blood vessels provide the body with oxygen and nutrients. As long as the tumor is smaller than 1 to 2 millimeters, it can use oxygen and nutrients from the surrounding tissue. Increasing growth causes a supply shortfall for cancer cells. Consequently, the tumor sends out growth factors, signaling the surrounding to develop new blood vessels. This growth factor also binds to the surface-protein of blood vessel cells, with the name VEGFR-2. Scientists detected that VEGFR-2 is more likely to be found on vessels in the tumor rather than in healthy tissue.

The Swiss -German biotech-company VAXIMM developed an oral vaccination with the name “VXM01”. The vaccine is meant to activate the immunocompetent cells of patients to counter the surface-protein VEGFR-2. The new oral therapy is not yet approved and is currently clinically tested. The genetic information of VEGFR-2 is used within mitigated bacteria for manufacturing.  Patients take the agent as liquid. Scientists and physician hope to characterize T-cells in the lymph nodes of colon as VEGFR-2. They are meant to detect and destroy vessel cells in the tumor that carry the protein. Consequently, the tumor will not be sufficiently supplied with blood, which decreases growth. Furthermore, hopes are that immunocompetent cells increasingly migrate into tumor tissue.

There are first clinical experiences with another form of cancer: in a phase-1 study of the University Hospital Heidelberg, 72 patients with advanced pancreas cancer tolerated the oral vaccine well. In some patients, the proprioceptive cancer resistance was activated and reinforced in the desired way.

„With the results of the oral vaccination in pancreas cancer we now want to test this therapy option in patients with advanced large bowel cancer“, says PD Dr. Carsten Grüllich, physician and scientist at the NCT Heidelberg.  A maximum of 24 patients with inoperable colon cancer with liver metastases, whose illness progressed despite one or two prior therapies, can enroll in the current study. Patients who fulfill the eligibility criteria will receive the liquid oral vaccination four times at the beginning of the treatment, in addition to chemo therapy. There will be a revitalizing vaccination every four weeks.