A trial looking at a vaccine called GV1001 for pancreatic cancer that has spread (TeloVac)

Cancer type:

Pancreatic cancer

Status:

Results

Phase:

Phase 3

The TeloVac trial was to see whether giving the GV1001 vaccine as well as chemotherapy would improve treatment for pancreatic cancer. This trial was supported by Cancer Research UK.

Doctors usually treat advanced pancreatic cancer with gemcitabine and capecitabine chemotherapy (GemCap). But there is evidence suggesting that using a type of treatment called immunotherapy Open a glossary item as well as chemotherapy may give better results. Immunotherapy is a type of biological therapy.

Immune system cells search for and kill abnormal cells. But they don’t always recognise cancer cells as being abnormal. The GV1001 vaccine works by teaching immune cells to recognise certain proteins (antigens) made by pancreatic cancer cells. The immune cells can then find the pancreatic cancer cells and kill them.

Doctors wanted to find out how well the GV1001 vaccine worked with GemCap. The aims of this trial were to see

If adding GV1001 to GemCap helped pancreatic cancer treatment to be more successful
How well GV1001 helped the body’s immune system to attack pancreatic cancer cells

Summary of results

The trial team found that adding GV1001 to GemCap didn’t improve treatment for pancreatic cancer.

This was a phase 3 trial. It recruited 1,062 people. It was a randomised trial. There were 3 treatment groups in the trial

GemCap chemotherapy
2 cycles of GemCap chemotherapy, followed by GV1001
GemCap and GV1001 started at the same time

After an average follow up of just over 6 months the team looked at the people whose cancer had responded. They found that the response rates were

17 out of every 100 people (17%) for those who had GemCap
9 out of every 100 people (9%) for those who had GemCap then GV1001
15 out of every 100 people (15%) for those who had GemCap and GV1001 at the same time

One year later, there was not much difference between the groups in the number of people who were still alive.

The trial team concluded that adding GV1001 to GemCap was no better than GemCap alone to treat pancreatic cancer.

We have based this summary on information from the team who ran the trial. The information they sent us has been reviewed by independent specialists (peer reviewed Open a glossary item ) but may not have been published in a medical journal. The figures we quote above were provided by the trial team. We have not analysed the data ourselves.