Study of the Telomerase Vaccine GV1001 to Treat Patients With Inoperable Stage III Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

Lung cancer (both small cell and non-small cell) is the second most common cancer in both men (after prostate cancer) and women (after breast cancer). It accounts for about 15% of all new cancers. Lung cancer is the world's leading cause of cancer death with more than 1.6 million new cases diagnosed each year. About 85 percent of lung cancer patients have Non-small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC ) and are usually diagnosed with advanced disease and have few treatment options and a very low survival rate. Radiotherapy is the treatment of choice in the successful treatment of stage III NSCLC. However, the 5-year survival for stage III patients treated with radiotherapy alone is less than 10%. Several types of chemotherapy treatments have been investigated, however, progress has been limited. Most patients die from relapsed disease. The peptide telomerase vaccine, GV1001, is under development for use as active immunotherapy in the treatment of cancer. Normally, the immune system is tolerant to self-proteins and peptides, while being able to react to foreign pathogens. However, cancer cells are degenerated cells and many of their peptides and proteins are self-proteins or peptides. By using vaccination, the immune tolerance towards a specific peptide or protein can be circumvented.