Onxeo and Institue Curie team up to test promising combinations against cancer

Onxeo, an oncology French-based focused drugmaker and a cancer fondation, the Institut Curie, have kicked off several cancer studies, to test the combination of radiotherapy, DNA repair inhibitors and immunotherapy.

They together assume that this combination can help people with drug-resistant cancers, and consider this a promising investment.

Related to this, Onxeo has in 2016 bought a DNA repair inhibitor which was discovered by the Institue. The particular signal-interfering inhibitor is AsiDNA.

Some of the more than 200 studies that test this combination, have shown that combining ipilimumab (PD1 immunotherapy) with the radiotherapy in metastatic melanoma, survival and response rate increased with patients that were double treated.

Immunotherapies don’t work for about 80% patients, mostly those with cancer that have low-level DNA mutations and do not produce neo-epitopes. “These small, cancer-specific molecules, which carry the mutation of a gene specific to the tumor cell, set the immune system on high alert and propel it to track down the dangerous cells,” explained Sebastian Amigorena, Director of the Immunotherapy Center at the Institut Curie.

It has further been said that the combination of radiotherapy and Dbait agents has already shown very promising results in humans. Nnamely, The DRIM clinical study, with skin metastases from melanoma, showed that the patients treated with the clinical form of Dbait – AsiDNA – with disappearance of tumor nodules 4 times higher than those with radiotherapy alone.