Scancell enrols and doses first patient in latest cancer trial

The AIM-traded firm also said that the third cohort of ModiFY was now open for recruitment, in combination with a checkpoint inhibitor.

It said expansion into the monotherapy arms and the start of combination dosing followed review of the safety data from the second cohort patients by the safety review board.

The company described the ModiFY study as a first-in-human clinical trial of Modi-1 - the first candidate from Scancell's ‘Moditope’ platform, being administered alone or in combination with checkpoint inhibitors in patients with head and neck, triple-negative breast and renal tumours, and as a monotherapy in patients with ovarian cancer, where there were currently no approved checkpoint inhibitor therapies.

It said the open-label study would recruit up to 125 patients in up to 20 clinical trial sites across the UK.

The company said it expected further safety and immunogenicity data to be available in the second half of 2022, and early efficacy data in 2023.

“This is an encouraging milestone for the company, showing that the higher dose of Modi-1 is generating immune responses that may be having an impact on tumour growth,” said chief executive officer Lindy Durrant.

“We are encouraged that there were no safety concerns in the second cohort, allowing us to proceed with the monotherapy expansion, and into the third cohort in combination with checkpoint inhibitors, and look forward to announcing further safety and immunogenicity data in the second half.”

At 1628 GMT, shares in Scancell Holdings were up 6.41% at 16.81p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.