Liquid Immunogenic Fiducial Eluter (LIFE) for Cervical Cancer Treatment

Project SummaryCurrent treatment options for advanced cervical cancer are limited, with a 5-year overall survival rate of 17%. In the USA, pervasive disparities remain in access to treatment and mortality, disproportionately affecting African American and Latino populations. Innovative therapeutic approaches for metastatic disease that can increase access to care and reduce disparities are greatly needed. To meet this need, in this project, Nanocan Therapeutics Corporation in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University, will develop innovative technology that can extend the use of local radiotherapy (RT) from palliation to distant control of metastatic cervical cancer with substantially reduced treatment time and cost, facilitating access to care and reducing disparities. The new technology, which Nanocan has licensed from Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School is a Liquid Immunotherapeutic Fiducial Eluter (LIFE) gel that can be easily administered locally and works in conjunction with hypo-fractionated radiotherapy for treatment of patients with advanced cervical cancer. Preliminary studies show that the use of the biocompatible/biodegradable LIFE gel technology can cause regression of both treated (local) and distant untreated/metastatic tumors and enable development of immunologic memory controlling disease for a long time. This Phase 1 STTR project focuses on optimizing efficacy and safety when employing the LIFE gel with HFRT in metastatic cervical cancer models setting. The results will set the stage for the first clinical trial. Innovative advantages of the LIFE gel include major potential to overcome immunosuppression due to sustained delivery, minimal systemic/overlapping toxicities, simple short treatment regimen, and providing imaging contrast for precision RT. The highest clinical impact of the LIFE gel technology approach is anticipated in significantly improved survival of advanced cervical cancer patients. Preliminary studies also show that this can provide a substantially cheaper alternative to systemic treatment and replace the intensive regimens over months to a short intervention, which will create significant opportunities for better global access to cancer care, and reduce cancer disparities.Project Narrative The central innovation and overall goal of this project is the development of new immunotherapeutic smart radiotherapy biomaterial technology (LIFE gel) combining hypo-fractionated radiotherapy (HFRT) with sustained intra-tumoral immunotherapy delivery to boost systemic treatment of metastatic cervical cancer. This project will establish optimal parameters for maximum therapeutic efficacy and safety when using the biocompatible/biodegradable LIFE gel in combination with HFRT. The highest clinical impact of the new approach is anticipated in significantly increasing the survival of metastatic cervical cancer patients and reducing disparities in access to treatment due to decreased treatment time and costs.