Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) has awarded 10 SU2C Catalyst clinical trial projects in which researchers from more than 30 institutions collaborate across academic and corporate borders on clinical trials—with correlated translational research which will deepen our understanding of why treatments are effective—across a variety of cancers, in a program supported by industry. The inaugural SU2C Catalyst projects will explore new uses for an array of powerful medicines, from the three SU2C Catalyst Charter Supporters and six other pharmaceutical companies, the American Association for Cancer Research, SU2C’s Scientific Partner, announced today.
Grants to support the trials, as well as access to medicines, are being provided by the three Charter Supporters: founding collaborator Merck, as well as Bristol-Myers Squibb Company and Genentech. These Charter Supporters offered compounds—both new pharmaceutical compounds that they are developing, and approved agents that can be investigated for other uses—to be used by the academic cancer research community, singly or in combination with products from the Charter Supporters or other companies. The use of these treatments and combinations with compounds from additional companies—in some cases triple combinations—were proposed by the academic research community in response to competitive Requests for Proposals. The proposals were evaluated and selected by industry-specific sub-committees, predominantly composed of leading academic scientists.
“This unique industry/academic collaboration has reduced the time for SU2C to get clinical trials started by more than 75 percent while bringing significant scientific rigor to the selection and oversight of the projects,” SU2C President and CEO Sung Poblete, PhD, RN said. “SU2C actively manages these grants to minimize delays and support the achievement of key milestones.”
The 10 inaugural clinical trials seek to address a wide variety of cancers, including breast, lung, melanoma, multiple myeloma, ovarian, pancreatic, hypermutant pediatric cancers, sarcoma, and urothelial cancer. The focus of SU2C Catalyst clinical trials is to study those treatments in combinations with other pharmaceutical company medicines, devices, and therapies as well as standard-of-care treatments. The additional pharmaceutical companies providing compounds to be studied in combination, or financial support, include AbbVie, Astex Pharmaceuticals, Iovance Biotherapeutics, Mirati Therapeutics, Prometheus Laboratories, and TESARO.
SU2C Catalyst is overseen by an Executive Committee chaired by Sharp and composed of academic investigators. Raymond N. DuBois, MD, PhD, dean of the College of Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, is chair of the donor-specific SU2C Catalyst Steering Subcommittees. The Executive Committee selects proposals for funding based on recommendations from the Steering Subcommittees. The program is administered by the AACR.
SU2C Catalyst projects also investigates why the combinations work, not just if the combinations work.
Selected clinical trials inclue:
Combined epigenetic therapy and pembrolizumab for advanced non-small-cell lung cancer. Stephen B. Baylin, MD, Van Andel Research Institute; $2.5 million. Combinations: Merck: pembrolizumab (Keytruda); Astex Pharmaceuticals: guadecitabine; Mirati Therapeutics: mocetinostat.
Targeting VDR to make pancreatic cancer competent for immunotherapy. Daniel D. Von Hoff, MD, Translational Genomics Institute; $2.5 million. Combinations: Merck: pembrolizumab (Keytruda); AbbVie: paricalcitol (Zemplar).
DNA repair therapies for ovarian cancer. Alan D. D’Andrea, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Elizabeth M. Swisher, MD, University of Washington; $1 million. Combinations: Merck: pembrolizumab (Keytruda); TESARO: niraparib (Zejula).
Pembrolizumab and radiation therapy to improve outcome in high-risk sarcoma. David G. Kirsch, MD, PhD, Duke University Medical Center; $2.5 million. Combinations: Merck: pembrolizumab (Keytruda); radiation therapy.
Tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte adoptive T cell therapy for NSCLC. Scott J. Antonia, MD, PhD, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center; $2.67 million. Combinations: Bristol-Myers Squibb: nivolumab; Iovance Biotherapeutics: financial support for tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs); Prometheus Laboratories, Inc.: IL-2.
Combined approaches by immune checkpoint inhibition for hypermutant cancers. Uri Tabori, MD, The Hospital for Sick Children (Toronto); $2.99 million. Combinations: Bristol-Myers Squibb: nivolumab, ipilimumab.
Reversing primary anti-PD-1 resistance with ipilimumab and nivolumab. Antoni Ribas, MD, PhD, University of California Los Angeles; $3 million. Combinations: Bristol-Myers Squibb: nivolumab, ipilimumab.
Immunotherapy to prevent progression in multiple myeloma. Irene Ghobrial, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; $3 million. Combinations: Bristol-Myers Squibb: nivolumab; lenalidomide.
Overcoming atezolizumab resistance with epigenetic therapy in urothelial cancer. Peter A. Jones, PhD, DSc, Van Andel Research Institute; $2.99 million. Combinations: Genentech: atezolizumab (Tecentriq®); Astex Pharmaceuticals: guadecitabine.
Immunotherapy combination strategies in ER-positive metastatic breast cancer. Ingrid Mayer, MD, Vanderbilt University Medical Center; $2.3 million. Combinations: Genentech: atezolizumab (Tecentriq), cobimetinib (Cotellic), idasanutlin.
During both the selection process and six-month reviews of each SU2C Catalyst project, the oversight committee has the opportunity to provide recommendations to be integrated into the scope of the projects to ensure the work is rigorous and achieves its milestones. Beyond industry and academia collaboration within SU2C Catalyst projects, data and outcomes are shared across the SU2C portfolio of 20 Dream Teams and seven Translational Research Teams engaging researchers in more than 140 leading cancer research institutions.