Summary
Experimental gene therapy drug HPN328 is being tested with Tecentriq in a trial to enhance immune response against small cell lung cancer.
Doctors are testing a new experimental drug for small cell lung cancer (SCLC) patients. The drug is called HPN328. It is a kind of gene therapy medicine that gets delivered inside viruses.
Researchers hope it will help boost the immune system to better attack cancer cells. The first patients have now started getting HPN328 plus an immunotherapy drug called Tecentriq in a early phase 1/2 clinical trial. The trial aims to test the safety of the drug combination and what dose levels to use. It also will look at whether the combo shows any effectiveness against SCLC based on response rates. If the trial goes well, the drug company Harpoon Therapeutics hopes to eventually test HPN328 and Tecentriq versus standard chemotherapy in a larger phase 3 trial. The company will also combine HPN328 with other immunotherapies.
More research is still needed to see if this gene therapy approach improves outcomes for SCLC patients.
