TAMPA, Fla — A skin cancer vaccine developed by a local Tampa company will soon begin "phase one" of its clinical trials.
Morphogenesis, Inc. says it will soon open the trial to local and regional dermatology clinics already experienced with clinical trials. This trial will treat patients who have been "just diagnosed" with skin cancers, such as melanoma, basal cell carcinoma or cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, the company says. Early stage skin cancers such as these are usually treated surgically, according to Morphogenesis.
With the phase one trials, the company says the only difference in treatment will be a single injection of the vaccine, called IFx-Hu2.0, into the patient's cancer lesion. Tissue samples will be taken during the initial diagnostic biopsy and the surgical removal and will give researchers the ability to track the effect the vaccine has on a cellular and molecular level.
Morphogenesis says its hope for patients is the vaccine will create an immune response and prevent other cancerous lesions from forming, something the company says has a high probability of happening. Patients in the first phase will have follow ups for up to a year to determine "recurrence rate," but will otherwise continue with their normal treatment plan, according to the company.
Before reaching this point, Morphogenesis says it has already gone through a full first phase of clinical trials in patients with late-stage skin cancers and will begin a second phase of that trial in the coming months.
"We are excited about being able to intervene earlier in cancers, and the prospect of preventing recurrence of skin cancers is no small matter," a spokesperson told 10 Tampa Bay in a statement. The number of late stage melanoma, for instance, is around 60,000 cases in the U.S. annually. The number of early skin cancer cases has been estimated at over 5 million.
While most of these skin cancers are not life-threatening and can be managed early on, developing a safe, efficacious and affordable immunotherapy for early skin cancers would be a huge achievement and take a tremendous burden off of our healthcare system."
