Landmark studies of therapeutic vaccination in cervical and ovarian cancers

The Lancet Oncology reports the findings of two important studies regarding immunotherapy for gynaecological cancers. Although both studies are small, they should be considered landmark studies for immunotherapy of gynaecological cancers because of their positive clinical results. Both involved vaccine immunotherapy, but the two vaccines studied were distinct. Pembrolizumab plus GX-188E therapeutic DNA vaccine in patients with HPV-16-positive or HPV-18-positive advanced cervical cancer: interim results of a single-arm, phase 2 trialTreatment with GX-188E therapeutic vaccine plus pembrolizumab for patients with recurrent or advanced cervical cancer was safe and treatment-related adverse events were manageable. This combination therapy showed preliminary antitumour activity in this interim analysis, which could represent a new potential treatment option for this patient population. This trial is ongoing. Full-Text PDF Gemogenovatucel-T (Vigil) immunotherapy as maintenance in frontline stage III/IV ovarian cancer (VITAL): a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 2b trialFront-line use of gemogenovatucel-T immunotherapy as maintenance was well tolerated but the primary endpoint was not met. Further investigation of gemogenovatucel-T in patients stratified by BRCA mutation status is warranted. Full-Text PDF Correction to Lancet Oncol 2020; 21: 1549–50Rose PG, Mahdi H. Landmark studies of therapeutic vaccination in cervical and ovarian cancers. Lancet Oncol 2020; 21: 1549–50—In this Comment, on the second and eleventh lines of paragraph two, the drug name has been corrected to GX-188E. This correction has been made to the online version as of Dec 30, 2020. Full-Text PDF