BriaCell Therapeutics Corp (NASDAQ: BCTX) jumped 6.51% after the company announced its targeted oncology therapy advancement into other novel immunotherapy cell lines: Bria-Mel for melanoma Bria-lung for lung cancer, and Bria-Pros from Prostate cancer.
BriaCell developing personalized cancer immunotherapies
The company’s immunotherapy treatment seemed to be effective in breast cancer when human leukocyte antigen molecules of the patient-matched targeted immunotherapy. This allowed BriaCell to identify patients more likely to be treatment responsive. BriaCell is now exploring off-the-shelf tailored immunotherapy for several cancer indications using its unique cell engineering technology and utilizing “HLA-matching” platform technology.
Bria-Pros is a customized prostate cancer immunotherapy available off-the-shelf. Aprt from non-melanoma skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most frequent cancer in men in the United States. Immunotherapy, hormone therapy, chemotherapy, and targeted treatments are some of the current treatments for metastatic prostate cancer.
Bria-Mel is also personalized off-the-shelf melanoma immunotherapy. Melanoma is diagnosed in approximately 80,000 people in the United States annually, with over 8,000 deaths. On the other hand, Bria-Lung is a tailored lung cancer immunotherapy that is equally available off the shelf. In the US, lung cancer is among the most frequent cancer. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most frequent type of lung cancer. In both cases, available treatments include chemotherapy, immune therapy, and targeted therapies, but none of those are curative, and there exists a significant unmet need.
BriaCell to commence trials in 2022
The company expects to commence clinical trials for the three therapies in 2022. Already Bria-OTS for advanced breast cancer treatment is on track to start dosing in 2021. Dr. Bill William, the company’s CEO, said that they are delighted with the prospects of their targeted off-the-shelf immunotherapies for advanced prostate cancer, lung cancer, and melanoma.