Pancreatic Cancer Program Pancreatic Cancer Pancreatic cancer affects over 30,000 people in the U.S. annually as determined by the American Cancer Society. Current treatments include surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. Unfortunately, pancreatic cancer is difficult to control with available therapies. Over 30,000 deaths are attributed to pancreatic cancer each year in the U.S. Therion�s PANVAC-VF� Vaccines Therion�s PANVAC-VF vaccine program uses a recombinant vaccine to target carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and mucin-1 (MUC-1), two proteins found in pancreatic tumor cells. Therion�s vaccine candidates use a proprietary, attenuated strain of vaccinia expressing CEA, MUC-1 and TRICOM� intended to "prime" or generate an initial immune response against cells displaying CEA and MUC-1; and use a fowl pox virus expressing CEA, MUC-1 and TRICOM administered subsequently as a �boost� intended to enhance and sustain the immune response. PANVAC-VF was designed to utilize pox virus vectors bearing both the CEA and MUC-1 tumor antigens to stimulate and sustain (prime and boost) an immune response against tumor cells. In addition to the antigens, the clinical candidate also incorporates TRICOM, Therion�s co-stimulatory system for enhancing immune response against tumor cells. The TRICOM component is designed to optimize, through the expression of multiple co-stimulatory molecules, antigen presentation and activation of cytotoxic T-cells critical for tumor destruction. PANVAC-VF will enter Phase II clinical trials to treat pancreatic cancer in early 2004. Main Page Prostate Cancer Vaccine Pancreatic Cancer Vaccine Collaborations PRODUCT CANDIDATES PANVAC-VF - Therion is developing PANVAC-VF as a lead candidate to treat pancreatic cancer. This lead product builds from previous clinical results of a prototype CEA vaccine that in Phase I/II clinical trials demonstrated encouraging survival data in late stage cancer patients. Five of nine patients treated with sequential vaccinations not only showed increased immune responses, but also remained alive two years out compared to zero long-term survivors in other treatment groups. This translates to a 60-80% survival at two years, compared to control. The study�s principal investigator, John Marshall, M.D., of Georgetown University Medical Center, presented this data at the 2001 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting. To read the full press release, please click here. Marshall, ASCO 2001 Hodge, et. al., Cancer Research 1999 Copyright © Therion Biologics Corporation.