PANVAC - VF Synopsis (PDF)

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Background on Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer remains one of the deadliest forms of cancer, affecting over 30,000 Americans each year. More than 95 percent of pancreatic cancer patients die from the disease. Current treatments include surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. Unfortunately, pancreatic cancer is difficult to control with available therapies.

PANVAC-VF

Therion is initiating an investigational Phase III clinical study to evaluate PANVAC-VF as a treatment for advanced pancreatic cancer patients who have failed treatment with gemcitabine. PANVAC-VF targets carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and mucin-1 (MUC-1), two antigens, or proteins, found on over 90 percent of pancreatic tumor cells. In addition to these antigens, the vaccine also incorporates TRICOM, Therion's proprietary triad of costimulatory molecules, believed to enhance and sustain a targeted immune response against tumor cells. Therion has presented data from earlier studies in CEA-bearing cancers in several peer-reviewed publications and presentations, many of which can be found in the Press Room section of this website.