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Investigators receive grants for bavituximab research
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The National Comprehensive Cancer Network Oncology Research Program awarded grants to three investigators who are studying bavituximab as part of combination treatments for cancer.
“NCCN is excited to initiate three studies by accomplished investigators at member institutions that will explore the effect of this novel immunotherapy in three different cancers with significant unmet need,” Robert C. Young, MD, interim vice president of the program, said in a press release.
Bavituximab (Peregrine Pharmaceuticals) is an investigational immunotherapy designed to help the body’s immune system by targeting and modulating the activity of phosphatidylserine, a signaling molecule expressed on the surface of cells in the tumor microenvironment.
Grant recipients are:
- Jessica Frakes, MD, of Moffitt Cancer Center, who is conducting a phase 1 trial of sorafenib (Nexavar, Bayer HealthCare) and bavituximab plus stereotactic body radiation therapy for unresectable hepatitis C–associated hepatocellular carcinoma;
- Elizabeth Gerstner, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, who is conducting a phase 1/phase 2 trial of bavituximab with radiation and temozolomide for patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma; and
- Ranee Mehra, MD, of The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, who is conducting a phase 2 study of pembrolizumab (Keytruda, Merck) and bavituximab for progressive recurrent/metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. Mehra is a HemOnc Today Editorial Board member.