Funded in partnership with the Dolphins Cancer Challenge (DCC)
Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest cancers, and most patients are not helped by immunotherapy. Immunotherapy is a treatment that uses the body’s own immune system to fight cancer.Our team is working with a cancer vaccine called ELI-002. It trains the immune system to find and attack pancreatic cancer cells. These cells carry a gene change called KRAS. In an earlier study, three of our patients had their cancer come back after the vaccine. They then took a different drug called nivolumab, and their tumors disappeared. This was a big surprise, because pancreatic cancer almost never responds this well to immune therapy.We think the vaccine trained the immune system well. But something in the tumor was still blocking the immune cells from finishing the job. New data from these patients’ tumors gives us a clue. A drug called daraxonrasib blocks the KRAS gene itself. This drug may clear the block and help the immune system work even better.This project will study tumor samples and use mouse models to learn how this combination works. Then we will test the vaccine together with the KRAS-blocking drug in a clinical trial. Some patients will also get nivolumab. Our goal is to find a better treatment for pancreatic cancer patients and learn which patients are most likely to benefit. This way, we can help many more people than the three patients whose amazing results inspired this research.
